Abstract:

Game-based learning is a relatively important part of the learning process. The game itself is a strong motivational factor for the children. They are not only informed about new facts, learn new skills and get new experiences, but the experience of the game also works well for better keeping and remembering these issues. A child who is given mediation through the game will take more of his education.

This is one of the reasons for launching a project called Children’s University of Faculty of Education, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic, where our Department of Mathematics has taken part from the very beginning. The project is focused on pupils of the first and second grade of elementary school. Through many offered courses from many various disciplines, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, IT, history, Czech, English, German, music, visual arts or biology, it allows them to learn new things and, in addition, to discover university life and its habits, such as ceremonial matriculation or graduation.

In this article, the whole concept of Children’s University is presented – from its very beginning in the year 2013 till the current form. At the same time, the reader is acquainted with the course of the Children’s University as well as with selected interesting mathematical courses which allow the children to learn what is it to be a university student. This selection is complemented by a detailed introduction to the course called Prime numbers and ciphers. At first, in this course, children are motivated with solving a simple cipher known from a short story The Gold-Bug by Edgar Alan Poe. After solving the cipher, the teacher goes to the possibilities of encryption and the associated importance of prime numbers. By doing so, the children also get to a fairly simple way of the primality test using the sieve of Eratosthenes.

At the end of the article, the reader is introduced to the preparation of the future course, which is going to be prepared for children in the following school year. Its name is Quest for mathematical lollipop and it consists of interesting and entertaining math-related activities, such as simple sudoku, tasks for estimating area, length or quantity, building a tangram and more. At the end of the course, successful solvers will be rewarded with a (mathematical) lollipop.

Keywords:

Children's University, mathematical courses, prime numbers, ciphers, sieve of Eratosthenes.