For the 12th time, the university organised a maths camp with school partners - 75 mathematics talents from years 6 to 13 from the north-west region were selected for the event. Several students and doctoral students from the Institute of Mathematics took part as teachers.
The participants came from Oldenburg, Varel, Jever, Papenburg, Leer, Aurich, Westerstede, Rastede and Delmenhorst; all of them had demonstrated exceptional mathematical achievements in their schools. For two days, they worked on various mathematical problems in areas such as logic, geometry, combinatorics and number theory at the Historisch-Ökologische Bildungsstätte (HÖB) in Papenburg - with a focus on "mathematics that is not normally taught at school", according to co-organiser Prof. Dr Daniel Grieser from the Institute of Mathematics.
The maths camp is an event organised by the Oldenburg Cooperation Network for the Promotion of Special Talents (KOV) and was originally initiated by Maren Hawighorst (Cäcilienschule Oldenburg) and Grieser; both still run it today. In addition to Oldenburg students and doctoral students, various teachers from Oldenburg, Leer, Varel, Delmenhorst, Papenburg and Melle took part in the programme. A former long-time maths camp participant also taught: Tammo Mintken, who now studies mathematics himself and is Chair of the Lower Saxony Mathematical Olympiad. He supports the maths camp in achieving one of its central goals: preparing young people for the annual Maths Olympiad.
The pupils worked on the topics and tasks in groups, guided by the maths students and teachers. Grieser was particularly pleased with the many "aha moments" and enthusiastic re-registering students ("Maths is simply fun!"). He himself gave a lecture on the topic of "Infinity in maths", which included the question of whether "infinity" minus "infinity" equals zero.
The participants took advantage of the spring-like weather to go rowing on the lake next to the HÖB. Many friendships that have been made at a maths camp in previous years were deepened and new ones formed. The maths camp was sponsored by the EWE Foundation and the Foundation of the Metal Industry in the North-West, based in Oldenburg. The organising team plans to hold maths camps of a similar size again in the coming years.
