 | Mind Sports For Schools
A Mind Sports Olympiad initiative,
in collaboration with EIC Manchester |
|
All UK schools are invited to compete in the 2nd UK Schools Quiz and Intelligence championships. Both championships will take place during the Schools weekend of the 8th Mind Sports Olympiad in Manchester. The event is being hosted by UMIST and accommodation on campus is available for those pupils and parents/teachers who will need it.
Full information on the championships, including sample qualification test questions, is available. The qualifying competition is to be held on March 25th, so please register quickly.
INTRODUCTION
The annual Mind Sports Olympiad, which recently announced its move to a permanent home in Manchester, is an annual festival of more than 40 different thinking games and mental skills, which anyone can enter. The event was inaugurated in London in 1997 and has attracted as many as 5,000 entries. This year's event, the 7th Mind Sports Olympiad, was held at Manchester Conference Centre at UMIST, from August 16th-25th, with the support of both UMIST and Manchester City Council.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded to the winners in every tournament as well as cash and other prizes. Junior medals are on offer in each tournament for the best players aged under 19. Those who win medals in more than one Mind Sports Olympiad will qualify for one of the MSO titles: MSO Grandmaster, MSO International Master and MSO Candidate Master.
COLLABORATION WITH EIC MANCHESTER
Many of the games and mental skills on offer at the Mind Sports Olympiad are ideal for children because they combine the fun of playing games and the enhancement of education. Our highest priority in the planning of the long-term future of our event is therefore the creation of the "Mind Sports for Schools" initiative. The aim, quite simply, is to help schools to promote mind sports amongst their pupils, leading to better numeracy, better literacy, and better learning, decision making and interpersonal skills.
We will shortly be notifying all schools in the country of the various activities forming the Mind Sports for Schools initiative for the 2003-2004 school year. We will be focussing on eleven games and mental skills that have significant educational value.
Participation in Mind Sports for Schools can be at any or all of the following levels:
1 Learning - our web site will offer advice and help for pupils on learning each game and mental skill.
2 Teaching - our web site will offer advice to teachers on how to teach each game and mental skill.
3 Competition - we will help schools to organize their own competitions for each activity and we will organize UK Schools Championships for each activity.
The eleven games and mental skills that form the core of Mind Sports for Schools are listed below, with brief descriptions for most of them and somewhat more information on Chess and Mini-Bridge. These descriptions summarize the main educational aspects of each of the eleven activities.
Chess
The educational values of Chess are widely recognized throughout the world. Two UK schools, Oakham School in Rutland and Millfield School in Somerset, have full time Chess teachers. Both offer Chess scholarships and the scholar for Oakham is selected each year by Garry Kasparov. In addition, the parents at many primary schools employ chess coaches who come after school or for lunchtime Chess clubs. "Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, believes that chess is a good vehicle for developing children's cognitive and analytical skills. At his behest, the Department for Education and Skills innovation unit is working with the British Chess Federation on proposals to give the game a central place in school curriculums." [Source: The Times, June 24th 2003]
The same article in The Times lists other countries where Chess is part of the curriculum:
USA: The US Chess Federation runs programmes for children in inner-city schools. Texas University has a chess department that offers full scholarships for players from Africa and Asia.
Russia: Widely taught as part of the curriculum. Chess schools have been established by grandmasters such as Garry Kasparov.
China: Has a number of chess schools.
Greece: Legislation has made chess a central part of the curriculum.
Brazil, Venezuela, Italy, Israel: Chess is part of the curriculum.
MiniBridge
MiniBridge is a very much simplified form of Bridge and is often used as an introduction to the game for those wishing to learn to play Bridge. Although Bridge is most often associated with the more mature card player, MiniBridge has been embraced by many primary and secondary schools as an asset to the curriculum.
Research by the English Bridge Union has identified several benefits of MiniBridge for schools. MiniBridge has general educational value, helping to develop numeracy, thinking skills and decision making. The game is for all ages, all backgrounds, all abilities and both sexes. MiniBridge enhances personal development by promoting co-operation and inter-personal skills (because it is a partnership game), and for promoting self-discipline, rule-following and self-esteem. Also MiniBridge is fun. [Source: EBU information pack "MiniBridge - it's a tool for education", April 2003]
The April 2003 edition of the Manchester Bridge Club Newsletter describes how a group from St Paul's C of E Primary School in Withington travelled to London to demonstrate to David Miliband, the Minister of State for School Standards, how MiniBridge could be an asset to any classroom curriculum: "Headteacher Don Berry said teaching MiniBridge to the children at lunchtime has had a marked effect on their concentration levels, behaviour and their maths skills. 'Our pupils took to it immediately and there have definitely been benefits in terms of intellectual level. The children say they think it has improved their memory, mental arithmetic and logical thinking. I would recommend it to other schools.' The Friday lunchtime MiniBridge sessions started two years ago, in conjunction with Manchester Bridge Club. For six months the children's progress was monitored by education psychologist Leah Burman, who says the effect was significant. She said: 'I have noticed that some of the children that were usually thought of as naughty or being not that academic, had been really successful. One boy who had been thought of as having behavioural problems got really involved because he didn't see this as school work. He succeeded at MiniBridge and his maths and mental arithmetic scores jumped by two years. I would like to see these mind sports included within the national curriculum so children have the opportunity to do this during the school day - giving all children the opportunity to learn.' "
Following the demonstration, David Miliband said: "For education to continue to advance we must continue to be forward thinking. Innovations such as the English Bridge Union's development of MiniBridge as a learning device, are to be encouraged and have my support. It has been a pleasure to witness primary school children's complete concentration, while so obviously enjoying playing MiniBridge, a game that is proven to improve their school learning ability." [Source: English Bridge, June 2003]
David Milliband's views are supported by quotations from teachers and an educational psychologist presented in the EBU information pack. For example:
"I like the way young people of all abilities can participate in MiniBridge from a very basic level to a more strategic form of play. Apart from helping to develop thinking skills and mental agility, MiniBridge also helps youngsters to work together co-operatively." - Irene Caird, Head of Learning Support, Cottesloe Secondary School.
"Gifted and talented pupils should be encouraged to take up a mind sport to diversify their thinking processes. MiniBridge is ideal as it develops social skills in addition to mental dexterity." - Mel Starkings, Mathematics Teacher, Loughborough Grammar School.
"Improved social skills and greater concentration were observed … Students involved became more confident when speaking and developed a greater ability to listen, share and help a partner … more supportive and tolerant of others … particular benefits for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties." - Leah Burman, Chartered Educational Psychologist.
Oware
Originally an African game, some 5,000 years old, which, in its traditional environment, is played with stones on a "board" of pits dug in the sand or earth. Wooden boards however can be found in many games shops and children can improvise their own boards quite easily. There are many variations on this game and it is known by different names, including Mancala.
Oware has been popularised in many UK schools by the Oware Society. Being a counting game Oware has been found to improve children's numeracy. For more information about the game visit www.oware.org or www.myriad-online.com/awalink.htm
Scrabble®
This well known game is an excellent way to improve children's vocabulary and spelling.
Go
Go is often thought of as being the world's deepest game and the most difficult to master, but the British Go Association has proved that the game can be quickly learned by children as young as primary school age. Go is an excellent tool for developing analytical skills, since it is highly tactical in nature.
Mental Calculations
At the Mind Sports Olympiad we have turned mental arithmetic into a competitive activity. Our tournaments are written tests in which the participants are allowed to write down only the answer to each question. Questions are graded in difficulty.
As part of the Mind Sports for Schools initiative our web site will teach techniques and "tricks" for improving a pupil's calculating ability.
Speed Reading
The World Speed Reading Championship takes place every year at the Mind Sports Olympiad. Our gold medallist, Anne Jones, is a Loughborough schoolteacher who has successfully taught Speed Reading to a number of her pupils. In June 2003 Anne and ten of her pupils became the first people in the UK to read the latest Harry Potter book - she and two of her pupils finished the book in a dead heat, with times of 1 hour 41.3 minutes for a "raw" reading speed of 2,637 words per minute! When their percentage recall was tested with 30 questions on the book, 15-year old Jennifer Gosling had outperformed Anne and all her other pupils, with an "effective reading speed" of 1,068 words per minute.
The Mind Sports for Schools initiative will teach Speed Reading techniques via our web site and with one-day courses.
Mind Mapping®
Mind Mapping is a method of recording thoughts and information that has been popularised by Tony Buzan. Its principal uses are as a technique for taking notes, preparing for lectures and organising one's ideas. The teaching methods for Mind Mapping that form part of the Mind Sports for Schools initiative will be created by Buzan Licensed Instructors who have many years' experience in this field.
Memory Skills
Many times World Memory Champion Dominic O'Brien can memorize a pack of playing cards perfectly in less than a minute. Dominic once memorized 54 packs during a period of 12 hours, achieving better than 98% accuracy in his recall of which card was where.
The techniques used by Dominic and other memory experts are easily taught, and while pupils may not be expected to emulate Dominic's performance, the same techniques can significantly improve pupils' ability to memorize and recall information. In July 2003 we arranged for Dominic to give a highly successful demonstration and teach-in at Ducie High School in Manchester - the pupils enjoyed it enormously and some of them performed remarkably well when tested at the end of the day.
Intelligence Puzzles
Mind Sports Olympiad has been collaborating since 1997 with Mensa, the high IQ organisation, to hold annual Intelligence Championships. This collaboration is being extended into schools as part of the Mind Sports for Schools initiative.
Our web site will teach techniques for solving the type of puzzle often found in Intelligence tests. While this will not enhance the intelligence of pupils it will help them to improve their lateral thinking and their scores on IQ tests. The winner of our Schools Intelligence Individual Championship is awarded a £1,000 scholarship to a higher educational establishment of their choice when they leave school, as well as a gold medal. At the 7th Mind Sports Olympiad the winner of this award was 17-year-old Stephen Coughlan of Our Lady's RC School, Royton.
General Knowledge Quiz
Quizzes provide a fun way of encouraging pupils to improve their general knowledge. Mind Sports Olympiad collaborates with the British Quiz Association to organize the UK Schools Quiz Championships, in which school teams compete for the title of national champion. The School Quiz Individual Championship finds the pupils with the best general knowledge and the winner of the championship is awarded a £1,000 scholarship to a higher educational establishment of their choice when they leave school, as well as a gold medal. At the 7th Mind Sports Olympiad the winner of this award was 15-year-old Tom Ellis of North Halifax Grammar School.
The Mind Sports for Schools initiative promotes the idea of fun with education.
The Mind Sports for Schools initiative will help develop your pupils' minds.
To find out more visit us from time to time at: www.msoworld.com/schools or e-mail info@msoworld.com at any time.
