Big weekend storm forecast of 200 maths students for All-Ireland celebration of learning

Dublin Castle is battening down the hatches this Saturday as a “LearnStorm” of maths will see 200 students descend on the venue to celebrate their accomplishments. Of the 30,000 primary and secondary students who signed up for LearnStorm Ireland, these 200 finalists have all earned their place at the celebration event based on their performance in the free 9-week online maths and mindset challenge.

Over nine weeks, students in Ireland spent more than 3 million minutes on Khan Academy and completed over 5 million problems as part of LearnStorm. This weekend’s attendees qualified to represent their school and county at Dublin Castle by mastering maths skills and showing perseverance during the challenge.

Inspired by the hard work and effort of the students in the learning challenge, Dublin City University is offering ten 5th year students the opportunity to apply for scholarships based on top performance for mastering maths skills and persevering with their learning. “DCU is delighted to support LearnStorm Ireland. It is a wonderful initiative that brings unique excitement to maths”, said DCU President Brian MacCraith. “It has already engaged tens of thousands of students all over Ireland in a manner that will have lasting effects on their future.”

The challenge, originally called MATHletes, was started in 2014 by technology entrepreneur Sean O’Sullivan. With its global expansion through Khan Academy and name change to LearnStorm, the initiative has grown significantly, with students of all abilities from every corner of the country and also the USA now engaged.

“LearnStorm Ireland has grown from 3,000 to 30,000 students registered in just three short years. This growth is a testament to the hundreds of schools and teachers across Ireland who have supported our goal of increasing students’ competence and confidence in maths. LearnStorm’s success is a story about renewed commitment and enthusiasm for learning maths in Ireland,” said Kelly Kirkpatrick of the O’Sullivan Foundation.

According to Adam Bargroff from Camara Ireland, who are delivering the challenge locally, “LearnStorm is free, fun and accessible from anywhere, but more importantly it is designed to reward the hard work and persistence of each student, something that the traditional method of maths education isn’t able to measure. Students are motivated and eager to complete even more exercises and have embraced technology to fully take control of their own learning.”

Powered by Khan Academy, a not-for-profit on a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere, LearnStorm is available to students in Ireland with the support of The O’Sullivan Foundation and is delivered locally by Camara Ireland.