Relevant initiatives

KoMaL - Mathematical and physical journal for seconday schools

MATFUND Hungarian High School Mathematics and Physics Foundation

since 1894

www.komal.hu

National

No

Teaching Methodology, Didactical resource

Maths, Physics

Other EU

Teachers

It is the electronic version of the Journal of High School Mathematics and Physics - monthly magazine, which was founded back in 1894 to promote the teaching of these subjects, and to this day every year organizes a point competition in mathematics and physics for the students of second degree of elementary schools and the high school students. Nowadays everything is working also in e-form. The site has also an archive of a great number of old tasks available to those interested in it. They can be used, for example, for after school activities. Within the field of physics there are as well available various experiments in the form of videos.
It was more than a hundred years ago that Dániel Arany, a high school teacher from the city of Győr, decided to found a mathematical journal for high school students. His goal was "to give a wealth of examples to students and teachers". The journal's first edition appeared on January 1, 1894.

The foundation of the journal had close connections with the boom in scientific life at the turn of the century. The Mathematical and Physical Society was founded in 1891, and in the autumn of 1894 the first Eötvös Competition in mathematics was organised for students that just graduated from high school.

From that time several generations of mathematicians and scientists developed their problem-solving skills through KöMaL. The best solutions with the names of the 14-18 year-old authors are printed in the periodical.

KöMaL regularly reports on national and international competitions, prints articles on interesting results in mathematics and physics, and includes book reviews.

For more than 40 years all the new problems have appeared in English as well as Hungarian. This means thousands of mathematics and physics problems and exercises in English!

At present the journal is published by the MATFUND Hungarian High School Mathematics and Physics Foundation, the János Bolyai Mathematical Society and the Roland Eötvös Physical Society with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Culture in 3500 copies.

The periodical "KöMaL - Középiskolai Matematikai és Fizikai Lapok" appears in Hungarian language 64 pages a month 9 times a year.

The electronic versions of high school mathematics and physics worksheets are useful to support the teaching of these subjects, especially the link http://www.komal.hu/verseny/verseny.h.shtml where every year the point contest in mathematics and physics for students of higher grades of elementary school and high school students is organized. There is also possibility to take a part in competition by filling in the electronic form and very useful archive - http: //www.komal.hu/verseny/korabbi.h.shtml where are tasks with solutions from previous years. At http://db.komal.hu/scan/ are published old editions of monthly and the tasks that can be used, for example at the afterschool courses or in preparation for various competitions. Within physics there are also available various videos with experiments - http://kiserletek.versenyvizsga.hu/.

As a teacher of mathematics I consider the website to be very useful, especially for the number of tasks of different level of difficulty which I can use on mathematics lessons or in group teaching for better students. It is also suitable as an activity in preparation for the competition and even my pupils have the opportunity to log in via the Internet and participate in the annual mathematical point contest.

This really doesn´t say anything to me because this site is intended for teachers of mathematics or for those students for who math is fun and they are interested in it.