Schoolchildren will publish a book with the 10 best “mathematical stories” written in a pandemic

They are small, but big on imagination. The Telefónica Movistar Foundation awarded a prize to a new generation of schoolchildren making their way into literature. Children between 11 and 15 years old who created the best stories about mathematical heroes and captured them in written and audio stories, which will be published in a digital book that will collect the 10 best school stories.

The winning schoolboys of the II Edition of the “Story Contest of the Mathematical Oracle”, to which more than 800 schoolchildren from all regions of the country signed up, showed that living in confinement did not mean that their imagination had been locked up, quite the opposite. The competition allowed them to capture their experiences during the pandemic, and they dared to play with their words to tell their stories.

audio storytellers

Amira Tinoco is an 11-year-old girl who lives in Ica and took first place in the audio story category of the Fundación Telefónica contest. She decided to create a heroine inspired by experiences from her school: her character is a victim of bullying but she overcomes it and becomes the leader of an adventure and mystery-hunting group, embarking on a journey through the enigmatic Nazca Lines where she finds mathematical puzzles. To narrate her story, Amira had the unconditional support of her relatives, who suggested adding sound effects and sound settings to her audio story.

Other winners are Christian Toledo (Lima) with his character who yearns to be the most powerful of all the Mathematical Oracle clubs; Ashly Gutiérrez (Arequipa), who, inspired by his great-grandfather, created a character based on a child prodigy with mathematical abilities; Alexander Lupuche (Piura) and Giulia Dance (Moquegua) turned Pythagoras and Thales of Miletus into their respective heroes.

young writers

Among the five winners of the written story category, first place went to Fabio Pacheco, a teenager from Cusco who is a fan of classic literary tales. Fabio was inspired by the memories of his grandfather who died during the pandemic and created an adventure story that his protagonist spends at sea.

Valeria Escalante (Cusco) also stands out in this category, a 15-year-old teenager who wrote a story based on a young woman who discovers incredible mysteries in the city of Cusco, managing to decipher the mathematical secret that the famous 12-angled stone, located in the center of the old Tahuantinsuyo. In addition to her winning short story, Valeria has a personal literary project involving two books on teen romance and fantasy.

The other winners are Mónica Delgado (Lambayeque), Sthefany Aguilar (Tacna) and Gabriela Ticona (Arequipa), whose characters find themselves with a deck of cards that give them powers to start an adventurous journey or face the best mathematical warriors.

Data

The first edition of the “Mathemagical Oracle” short story contest was in 2021.
In 2021, the Telefónica Movistar Foundation awarded 10 schoolchildren from seven regions, whose stories were published in the digital book “Heirs of the Mathematical Oracle: Anthology of winners of the first short story contest” (It can be downloaded free of charge from the link: https://educared.fundaciontelefonica.com.pe/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/oraculo-matemágico-libro.pdf.pdf
The contest is based on the educational app Oracle Mathematical, a Peruvian video game used by more than 1 million schoolchildren in Latin America. It is one of the projects of the “Digital Education” program of Fundación Telefónica Movistar and ´la Caixa´ Foundation. The app has more than 900 geometry exercises, mental calculation, numerical magnitudes, among others.