Skip to the content of the web site.

School Visit Frequently Asked Questions

  1. At what grade level are your visits aimed?
  2. Will you talk to all of the students in a particular grade at my school?
  3. Will you talk to students from multiple schools at one location?
  4. What size of group works best?
  5. What length of session is optimal?
  6. During what part of the year will you come?
  7. What type of location is best? What materials will you need?
  8. Should I be in the room during the session?
  9. What do my students need to bring?
  10. Will you do multiple sessions at my school?
  11. Will you do computer science enrichment as well as problem solving in mathematics?
  12. Will you meet with groups of teachers as well as groups of students?

  1. At what grade level are your visits aimed?

  2. We are happy to talk to students from Grades 7 to 12.

    Back to Top

  3. Will you talk to all of the students in a particular grade at my school?

  4. Our visits are aimed at interested and able students. Sometimes we meet with selected students. Other times, we work with entire classes. Our experience is that our visits are more appropriate for those in the Academic and University streams.

    Back to Top

  5. Will you talk to students from multiple schools at one location?

  6. Definitely. Some of our most successful visits are to schools where students from two or more surrounding schools are brought together to one location. This is a fantastic way for students from different places to meet and interact. This works well both for surrounding secondary schools to come together and for a secondary school to bring together students from its feeder schools.

    Back to Top

  7. What size of group works best?

  8. Generally, talking to groups of 20 to 40 is ideal, although larger and smaller groups are possible.

    Back to Top

  9. What length of session is optimal?

  10. Sessions of 70 to 90 minutes are best. Shorter sessions tend to work better with younger students.

    Back to Top

  11. During what part of the year will you come?

  12. We are relatively flexible and will try to accommodate your school's needs. February and April tend to be very busy times, so we try to arrange as many visits as we can for other times.

    Back to Top

  13. What type of location is best? What materials will you need?

  14. We prefer to do our talks in classrooms, but are flexible and frequently use libraries, etc. Having a data projector and screen is usually very helpful. Having a blackboard or whiteboard is also useful. Students should be seated at desks or tables at which they can easily work.

    Back to Top

  15. Should I be in the room during the session?

  16. At least one teacher should be in the room during the visit. Most teachers find our visits quite interesting.

    Back to Top

  17. What do my students need to bring?

  18. Students should bring a pencil and some paper. Some students might find a calculator useful. Our sessions almost always involve the students doing lots of mathematics themselves.

    Back to Top

  19. Will you do multiple sessions at my school?

  20. We are happy to do multiple sessions. Because of demand for these visits, we usually can't visit a school more than once in a given year.

    Back to Top

  21. Will you do computer science enrichment as well as problem solving in mathematics?

  22. Yes, although we need to know this in advance to make sure to involve the most appropriate Faculty members.

    Back to Top

  23. Will you meet with groups of teachers as well as groups of students?

  24. Yes. We are happy to meet with groups of teachers during the school day, at lunch, or after school to discuss such topics as

    • preparing students for contests and problem-solving
    • resources for teachers offered by the CEMC
    • careers and real-world applications in mathematics and computer science
    • math and computer science at the University of Waterloo
    • what comes next in math/CS after those topics covered in high school curriculum

    Back to Top