The first weekend camp was organized by Lajos Pósa in 1988. Since then camps are organized continuously. Originally there wasn’t a fixed location and the camps took place all over the country. For a long time however, all camps have been taking place in the Collage of the Primary School at Tapolcsányi utca.
The children of the camps
Although we try to assign children of the same age in a group, students in consecutive grades occasionally share a group.
Students usually join a group in 7th grade (age 12-13.) Part of the group is assembled from the participants of the MaMuT camp held during the summer after 6th grade. However, it is possible to join a group without having participated in MaMuT. Before launching a group we try to assess the landscape across the country, in terms of mathematical talents, by organising small-scale recruiting events at various locations. We also reach out to many teachers, among whom there are always some who bring students to our attention, who we would have missed otherwise.
The groups are regularly extended later on, since not everyone is able to accurately assess their talents in 7th grade. The reverse erosion is also present in terms of participants, usually caused by a shift in interest from mathematics and deciding not to invest as much energy as before. The number of participants usually starts between 25 and 35. Lately we try to launch two groups annually, thus the number of students in each grade is around 60.
A group usually takes part in about 10 to 13 weekend camps, with 2, occasionally 3 every year. For the most part, the camps take place from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, with some longer ones in school breaks, which we try to arrange to be 3-4 days long.
Group work
The children in the camps spend their time thinking in small groups of 1 to 4.
A singleton group is unusual but permitted, whereas 4-person groups are prohibited by some teachers. By collective thinking, we do not mean the division of labor in terms of problems so that once solved a person can share the solution with others. What we try to achieve is that each student can solve as many problems as possible on their own, so we do not allow students to outright share solutions with their teammates who haven’t tackled the problem yet.. Therefore, the purpose of the groups begs the question. In our vision, collective discussion, brainstorming within a group should take place when no one in the group has yielded a solution to a particular problem in quite some time. Sharing knowledge about a topic, what comes to mind in relation to a problem, might result in a solution faster than thinking only on our own.
The work done by the groups is supervised via regular visits by the teachers, during which groups can summarize their progress – which problems they have solved, the ones they need help with or seem too difficult. Only the problems to which the solution is known or believed to be known to the whole group are discussed. The problems which were solved by only part of the group are also discussed, with great care not to let the others hear the solution.
It is important for the camp leader to be up to date with the progress of each group, so that they can adjust the speed and difficulty of the weekend as a whole. Naturally, it is no wonder that there are discrepancies from the originally set plan of the weekend according to the needs and abilities of the students.
Financials
Participation is completely free for the children.
If you have the means and would like to support the work of the Foundation, you can do so by transferring a sum to the following account. Account number: 11600006-00000000-67814154 (account owner: A Gondolkodás Öröme Alapítvány.) It is also possible to make an online donation via this this platform.