February 6, 2024
“The Young Mathematical Story Authors (YMSA) competition is the world’s first annual international competition set up to encourage young mathematics learners (8-15 years old) from around the world to embed their mathematics learning in a meaningful and engaging context through creating their own mathematical story picture books.”
To enter the competition, your child should write and illustrate an original story that embeds the mathematical concept in a meaningful context and shows how understanding the concept can help their characters solve problems. Specific guidelines include:
- Clearly explain the chosen mathematical concept in the story without assuming the reader already knows about the topic;
- Ability to embed the chosen mathematical concept in a meaningful context;
- Ability to show how characters’ knowledge of the chosen mathematical topic can help them solve a problem(s);
- Ability to represent the chosen mathematical concept contextually (in words), visually (via page illustrations), and symbolically (via using correct mathematical symbols, notations and language);
- Accuracy of mathematical concepts presented in the story;
- Ability to come up with an engaging and original story;
- Include a diverse range of characters – gender, race etc;
- Overall presentation and standard of writing (e.g. quality of illustrations, the use of punctuation, spelling, etc.)
Winners will receive £100 for themselves and £100 for their school! Entries must be received by the deadline of Friday, March 29, 2024. Winners will be announced on May 31, 2024.
Full entry requirements and guidelines are available on the official YMSA website.
We encourage your children to take part in this competition, to make maths even more fun! They can unleash their creativity and learn something new at the same time.