At Blue Orange, we love to create partnerships that directly benefit children while also promoting the value of play. A few months ago, Math in Jeans reached out to us looking for games for their Treasure Hunt activity, and for downtime play during their annual event. We were happy to say yes and to sponsor the Maths in Jeans conference hosted by the French school in San Francisco (LFSF). During this 3 days event, 270 middle and high school students, 34 teachers and 6 researchers and doctorate students gathered in the beautiful city by the Bay.
Maths in Jeans is a project that aims to connect middle and high school students to the world of mathematical research. It is carried out by an association that has existed for 
30 years. Back in September, researchers gave Maths in Jeans nearly 50 research topics. Students from 10 French schools in North America and Singapore, chose a topic and worked on it for 6 months. Groups of students working on the same research were matched across schools to promote exchange and discovery. The groups presented their research to all the students during the event.
Matthieu Schavsinski, one of the Math teachers leading the organization, explains the benefits of the event and all the work going into it before the presentations: ‘’For our students, it’s a unique learning experience. This project is a way to learn about the research process, to experience collaboration with peers, overcome difficulties and find solutions when we are faced by very large problem we have to solve. It’s also the opportunity to show them how math relates to real life. For example, they work on modeling traffic jams, how to organize flights in an airport, or also how to identify the shortest road to link 4 cities anywhere on a map.’’
A treasure hunt with a pinpointer was organized to help students discover the area around the school, the perfect team-building activity. A selection of brainy Blue Orange games were set-up as challenges: racing to complete a Dr. Eureka or a Dr. Beaker challenge for example were part of the hunt! Each team was made of 10 students of different ages and backgrounds and a chaperon. The best team was rewarded with board games and calculators!
During the breaks, students had access to more Blue Orange games and we were told they loved the diversion from math to games.
We are glad this event was a big success!
If you are interested by the organization Maths in Jeans, please contact Matthieu Schavsinski: mschavsinski@lelycee.org.
If you organize an event for which Blue Orange could be a key partner by providing games, do not hesitate to present your project by emailing marketing@blueorangegames.com.
