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Students from Cove Cliff Elementary enjoyed Capilano’s SNAP math fair held on March 7.

Math is a SNAP at Capilano’s math fair

There’s a fishbowl with 200 fish and
99 per cent are guppies. How many
guppies do you need to remove to
get to the point where 98 per cent
of the remaining fish are guppies?

This reasoning puzzle is a favourite
interview question asked of
prospective Microsoft employees.
Puzzles have been around for a long
time and today some employers,
such as Microsoft, use puzzles or
brain teasers to determine a
prospective employee's aptitude.
They're also a great way to start a
conversation and get people
interacting.

Capilano’s Math department is also
using puzzles, but in a creative
manner that will promote its
discipline in the community.
Students in the College’s Math for
Elementary Teachers course (Math

Deanna Lewis, a graduate of
Capilano’s Wilderness Leadership
program and former First Nations
Tourism Management Co-op
program, is this year's recipient of
the Young Adult Achievement
award.

190) hosted a SNAP math fair at
the North Vancouver campus on
Friday, March 7. Students in Grades
4 and 5 from North Vancouver's
Capilano Elementary, Montroyal
Elementary, Cove Cliff Elementary,
and Queensbury Elementary, and
from Burnaby’s Sperling Elementary
attended three morning sessions. At
each, they were treated to a variety
of interesting and challenging math
puzzles set up in booths in the
Birch building’s lower cafeteria.

“What better way is there for potential
school teachers to experience and
learn how to present mathematics to
their targeted audience than through
a math fair,” says Capilano math
instructor, Dr. Chris Morgan. “This
is an activity not just about learning
some math, but it’s also about
having fun doing it.”

Deanna is a tour guide with th
Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre.
She received one of nine award
presented at the fifth annual
Aboriginal Tourism Association
B.C. awards dinner held in
Vancouver on March 5.

At Capilano College our mission
Ts to enable student success.

The acronym SNAP means student-
centered, non-competitive,
all-inclusive, and problem-based.
SNAP math fairs have been presented
in Sweden, Africa, Austria, Canada,
and the United States.

“We held our first SNAP math fair
at Capilano in November 2007,”
Chris said, adding, “and we've now
incorporated it as a major project in
the Math 190 course. We will be
holding a fair each fall and spring
when the Math 190 course is
offered.”

Students from Capilano’s School

of Documentary and Small Unit
Production, with the support of the
SNAP Math board, are producing

a film of the fair that will be
distributed internationally. The
purpose of this film is to promote
and aid in the production of SNAP
math fairs. This documentary, along
with online resources and the
Pacific Institute for the Mathematical
Sciences math fair booklet, will
assist other teachers in organizing
their own math fairs.

Puzzle answer: Since only guppies
are being removed, the one per cent
of other fish you start with remains
the same. One per cent of 200 is
two fish, so these two fish become
two per cent to make the guppies
total up to 98 per cent. Two fish of
two per cent is 100 total, so 100
guppies have to go.

Deanna Lewis holds the Aboriginal Tourism
B.C. award, which she received for her
help in creating the Squamish Lil'Wat
Cultural Centre. Photo courtesy of Laura
Hendrick/The Chief.

The view from IT services.

Photo by Darin Feist.

This year’s employee
recognition event, sponsored
by HR Services, will be held on
Thursday, May 15 at noon in
the Library building, room 322.

Employees listed here will be
honoured for longtime service
to Capilano. The nominees for _
outstanding customer relations |
and outstanding service to
Capilano will also be recognized
at the luncheon. For more
information, please contact

Val Newman in HR Services at
local 4979.

40 years of service

Crawford Kilian and
Dr. Penny LeCouteur

35 years of services
Wayne Eastcott, Cheryl Helm,
Josephine Jungic, Eduard
Lavalle, Kenneth Towson

30 years of service

Fred Ardiel, Diane Blaney,
Dr. Robert Camfield, Dr. Robert
Campbell, Graham Fane,
Lynne Hamilton, Rosalie
Hawrylko, Marion Haythorne,
Patricia Hodgson, George
Modenesi, Dawn Moore,

Robert Nichols, Judith Rose,
Ian Smith, Lawrence Wu
25 years of service

_ Stephen Boswell, Gerry Davie,

Ga ar, Dr. Frank

Harris, Wendy Lynn, Kenneth
Moore Tony Nickels, Stan
Persky, John

Nancy Boyd, John Brooks, —
Cathy Cole, Carol Cram, Betty

MacKenzie, |
y Rejean :

Cameron Sylvester, Dr. Andrea

£

eetzel, Rebec