[MATHLINK] Mental Calculation Project

[Sam Engel]

I wanted to share a new mental math project with you. The recently
launched/still developing website for the project is mentalcalculation.org.
The founding group of this project includes several of the most prominent
and accomplished mental calculation experts in the world.

The project is to design a scalable mental calculation competition with the
hope of: (1) providing a fun and entertaining way for people to engage with
numbers; (2) promoting collaboration and sharing of methods between
mental math experts across the world; and (3) developing materials that
would contribute to discussions about the improvement of math education,
especially in the United States and the other Western countries.

With regard to this final point, in connection with the "Calculation
League," we are establishing contacts with very high achieving students
from a variety of different geographic areas (and thus exposed to very
different approaches to teaching) as well as some of the teachers and
organizations that have assisted them. Through this process, we are hoping
to be able to provide tutorials and learning materials from some extremely
successful students who have a range of perspectives. The goal is that --
eventually -- compiling freely available information about the approaches
and processes of "prodigy" calculators from a variety of different
educational and cultural backgrounds may help assist research in
neuroscience and mathematical education.

We are looking for:

(1) people who are willing and able to assist in the project;
(2) academic research on the neuroscience of mental calculation and
on math education;
(3) any researchers who believe this project or some of the individuals
involved in it may provide helpful information to their own research
efforts; and
(4) any researchers who are aware of software that was used in research
relating to mental math and mental calculation and which could potentially
be repurposed to be beneficial to this project.

And, of course, we appreciate any sharing of this project with individuals
or groups who may have an interest in the project. Finally, I want to be
clear that the project is entirely non-commercial and currently relies on
the volunteer efforts of the people listed on the website and a small list
of other interested individuals.

Sincerely,

Sam Engel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://the-mcls.org/pipermail/mathlink_the-mcls.org/attachments/20231213/403fe4fa/attachment.html>