“Fun and innovative”, say students at the 3rd edition of FestMat in Rio
The event welcomed more than 460 schools over two days of programming
06/09/2024
Fun, play and learning are some of the words that the students at the National Math Festival on Friday (6) used to define the event, which runs until Saturday (7) at Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro. In just two days, more than 460 schools attended FestMat, an IMPA initiative to demystify mathematics and show that the subject can be fun and entertaining, as well as being present in everyday activities.
“Mathematics sometimes seems like a villain to students, but it’s presented here in a very cool way. That’s what the Festival promises and it delivers very well. It’s an incredible event for all schools to take part in,” said João Pedro Ferreira, 12, a student at the Henrique Lages/Faetec school. Juan Queiroz, 13, from the same school, was delighted with the structure. “We’re really enjoying being here. The set-up is very nice, lots of interesting activities.”
Maria Eduarda, 15, a student at CIEP 147 in Arraial do Cabo, a town in the region, was excited about the experiences on offer. “I’m loving the Festival! I love math and it’s been wonderful going through the event. I had a lot of fun with the virtual reality experience.”
Newton Ribeiro, a math teacher from the Arraial do Cabo municipal school system, said that his school brought 40 students to the Festival. “As a teacher, I think the event is really cool, there’s a lot of innovation and new things that we can apply in the classroom, such as combining knowledge with games. It was fantastic for the students, it was worth coming from far away.”
Robot soccer, a virtual tour of Neferhotep’s tomb in Ancient Egypt, a square wheel bicycle, a virtual escape room, arena games and tangram are some of the Festival’s activities.
Friday began with a lively OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) quiz, which distributed a series of gifts to the participants. Throughout the day, the public was able to listen to various talks on technology and innovation.
In the talk “Exploring the Future with Robots” Paulo Duarte and Hostilio Ribeiro from PD7 Tech, responsible for bringing the “robot dogs” and the robot Tito to the festival, explained the origin of the word robot, derived from the Czech word “robota”, which first appeared in a play.
The pair also said that the first model of the Tito robot (humanoid) was built with ice cream sticks in a school competition. “Students were challenged to build a robot with few resources. At first, it didn’t have all the movements it has today. It took a combination of imagination and math studies.”
During the talk, the pair showed how robots have gone from entertainment to professional use. “Robot dogs carry out inspections and even have a military purpose. They have sensors on top that can transmit 360-degree images – important for security, for example.”
The day was also marked by two presentations from Google. Leonardo Almeida spoke about the advances in Artificial Intelligence and Fábio La Selva showed the opportunities for training in technology that the platform offers.
The guys from Afrogames, Afroreggae’s programming course, showed how the NGO uses programming to transform lives. “We understand that there is no barrier to talking about culture and education. That’s why Afroreggae is in several communities in Rio”.
Read more: IMPA Tech brings innovation to the National Mathematics Festival in Rio
See also: Lectures on cryptography and virtual reality mark 1st day of FestMat
