On February 18 & 19, Bangalore played host to the Xyo Inter-School Maths-Science Olympiad held at Karnataka State Hockey Stadium. While middle school whizzes from schools across the city engaged themselves in mind boggling sessions of Maths, their parents got tips on adopting healthy eating and healthy lifestyle, managing sports injuries and health emergencies in children from doctors of Columbia Asia Hospitals, Whitefield, which was the health partner for the event. The 2-day event saw participation from 800 students selected from over 15,000 students from 25 schools in the city.
The format of the Olympiad was in the form of a computer game where one team competes with the other, making it exciting for the students. While the Maths questions were based on the syllabus, the context was very unique and made Maths come alive for the students. Each team had an opportunity to decide on the type of problems they want to attempt: knowledge based or analysis based. They had to work together as a team and arrive at the correct answer, faster than the opponent. The pairing and the decision of who plays the game was very similar to a sporting tournament.
Points were based on getting questions correct as well as the number of milliseconds by which the team is faster than the opponent. Teamwork, accuracy and analytical thinking were the attributes that made one team get ahead of another.
The event was free for participation to students and schools. Top three positions in class 4, 5, and 6 were bagged by students of Harvest International, Freedom International, Deens Academy, SSRVM North Bangalore, Sri Kumarans Children’s Home, and NPS Indiranagar.
Dr Shailaja Sharma from NIAS, IISc was fascinated with the format. “This is fantastic that children are learning to work together as a team and are so excited and happy while doing mathematics,” she said.
“The Xyo Inter-School Olympiad is organised very well and we are happy to let our students participate in the programme. The organisers are efficient and have made sure all communication reaches us well on time. Wishing this year’s edition all success,” said Jayasree Ramesh, principal Sri Kumaran Public School.
“The children today are exposed to much more than the previous generation. The problems in the Xyo Olympiad are different and unique. Being part of this event, helps the students to choose a career path in Mathematics,” said Chandrakala, principal, Sri Kumaran Public Academy.
Middle School students across Bangalore took to the fourth edition of the event with the right attitude. They love to win, they can take losing but most of all they love to play.
Columbia Asia Hospital, Whitefield was the healthcare partner for the event where a free diabetic camp was organised by the hospital at the venue. Around 1600 parents of children who participated in the event were screened at the diabetic camp. Doctors from Columbia Asia Hospital also engaged in insightful conversation with the parents.
Highlighting the importance of proper diet for a healthy life, Dr. Mahesh D M, consultant endocrinologist, said, “It is vital to ingrain healthy eating habits in children from a young age. This goes a long way in adapting a healthy lifestyle in the future.”
Addressing the parents, Dr. Firoz Torgal, consultant Emergency Medicine, also delivered an informative talk on common emergencies. Dr. Suruchi Goyal Agarwal, consultant Paediatrics and Paediatric Endocrinology, engaged in an interaction with parents on the topic ‘Why my child is so tired?’ Dr. Sandeep Dhar, head Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation, guided parents on the assessment and management of sports injuries in children.
Bangalore headquartered Columbia Asia Hospitals Pvt. Ltd. is the only company in India to utilise 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) route in the hospital sector.
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