The first edition of Brainfinity – Collaborative Problem Solving Challenge took place in 2019, generating much interest among students, teachers and parents.

Brainfinity 2019 hosted 36 teams comprising fifth-graders from 12 cities in Serbia. The top 11 teams qualified for the finals that took place on April, 20 at Savremena Gimnazija in Belgrade.

Brainfinity 2019 was an excellent example of a practical exercise illustrating how math should be taught in schools and how it can be functionally applicable in solving real problems.

This competition is unique, not only in Serbia but throughout the region. It began as a math contest and evolved into a problem solving competition. Last year’s participants trained to solve real problems. They are used to project-based learning, which is why they achieved such great results,

says math teacher Ivan Anić, founder of the competition who, together with his colleague Radoje Košanin, wrote Matematika 5, a textbook advocating project-based learning.

Math teacher Košanin participated with his own team comprising students from the Vožd Karađorđe Elementary School from Niš. He believes that this is the right approach to math and that it makes the competition unique.

“We took this competition seriously and the tasks were based on entrepreneurial competencies”, says teacher Radoje Košanin, stressing how relaxed and committed the children were during the contest.

The Brainfinity 2019 jury included: Srđan Verbić, Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs at FEFA, Aleksandra Rosić and Bojan Ristić, professor and director at ITS, Dragana Stanojević from the Institute for the Evaluation of Quality in Education, and Mladen Stamenković and Branko Urošević, professors at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.

Brainfinity 2019 pioneers – fifth graders who did their best to be as productive and efficient as possible until the very end of the competition – promised to come back.

The competition was very interesting. All of us communicated, solved problems and spent quality time together,

said Iva, a member of the winning team, while her opponent Uroš enjoyed the LEGO challenge the most.

The winner of the first Collaborative Problem Solving Challenge was the team from the Radoje Domanović Elementary School from New Belgrade. The best contestants won trophies, medals and tablets.

Last year’s competition was organized by LINKgroup, a leading multinational company with more than 20 years of success in professional education, together with the Institute for Contemporary Education and Savremena Gimnazija which hosted the finals.

What Brainfinity 2019 will be remembered for is the great level of enthusiasm shown by the parents.

Unlike standard math and logic contests which require participants to practice tasks for hours, Brainfinity is a completely different and innovative competition which tickles the imagination and creativity of students who solve problems through shared effort.

The first competition level made a strong impression on the children, their parents and teachers. The feedback was excellent and beyond expectation,

said professor Anić, adding that the jury members were surprised by the skills shown by the participants.

Take a look at last year’s edition of Brainfinity

This year, Brainfinity will once again be broadcast via live stream on the homepage, allowing viewers to not only follow the progress made by the young detectives in this unusual problem solving competition, but also to join them in completing tasks and testing their knowledge.