Abacus Bee 2024 Preview

On this episode of Change Makers we are talking about the upcoming Abacus Bee. Held in March, this event will host the best and brightest abacus students right here in Louisville, Kentucky.

On this Podcast (In Order of Appearance)

• Narrator
• Sara Brown, APH Public Relations Manager
• Jennifer Brooks, APH Outreach Specialist – NorthCentral Region 

Additional Links

• Abacus Bee 2024
• About APH Abacus Bee
• Connect the Dots, powered by PNC Foundation

Transcript

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Narrator 0:00

<silence> Welcome to Change Makers , a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Here's your host.

Sara Brown 0:15

Hello and welcome to Change Makers . I'm APH'S Public Relations manager, Sara Brown . And on today's episode, we are talking about the upcoming Abacus Bee held in March. This event will host the best and brightest students from across the country right here in Louisville, Kentucky. To talk more about this event, I have APH'S Outreach Regional specialist, Jennifer Brooks here. Hello Jennifer, and welcome to Change Makers .

Jennifer Brooks 0:40

Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to this.

Sara Brown 0:44

<laugh> . Me too. Alright , Jennifer, can you share what it is that you do at APH?

Jennifer Brooks 0:50

Sure thing. That's a great question. So I am with the Outreach Department of APH and I'm a Regional Specialist. So I provide professional development and trainings to professionals , um, that's teachers, service providers, parents, families , um, across nine states. And I have the North Central region , um, of the U. S.

Sara Brown 1:13

And it's an exciting time because we have the Abacus Bee coming up. Can you just give us an overview of the Abacus Bee and tell us what it is ?

Jennifer Brooks 1:22

Sure thing. So the Abacus Bee, it's a friendly and fun contest for students who are blind and or have low vision. With the goal of engaging them and developing their math skills, they compete with other students from across the country and who have those, all the students who participate have the same joy of STEM, which is science, technology, engineering, and math.

Sara Brown 1:46

Okay. And Jennifer, talk a little bit more about who this event is geared to. Is there an age range or a demographic?

Jennifer Brooks 1:53

Sure. So learners who are in elementary, middle, and high school who are blind or have low vision, those who enjoy math, have a love of numbers, are intrigued by science or need the foundational skills for continuing their learning of stem. Or maybe you just wanna challenge yourself and see what your potential could be. Or perhaps you just wanna participate in an activity with your peers, join us in a regional Abacus Bee and we'll maybe we'll see you at the finals.

Sara Brown 2:24

Wonderful. And I was at the Abacus Bee last year, the very first one that was held here at APH. And there are so many really cool activities we got, you know, whether it was playing with the RC rovers and the various STEM products that APH has. Can you talk about some of the activities for this year?

Jennifer Brooks 2:43

Oh boy. For those who are in the finals, we have a really awesome guest speaker who's going to join us. I think we're gonna hold that until the event, but we're looking forward for the families , uh, to be enthralled by our speaker's skills and career and , uh, how she moved into the STEM career that she is in.

Sara Brown 3:08

Cool. Now what do the participants get out of this? I, I, as a person who's seen this, know what participants get, but I feel like it's just so much more than just learning how to do problems on an abacus, but talk about what they get out of it. What's the benefit of something like this?

Jennifer Brooks 3:27

For, for sure. Uh, we talked about how math is the key skill needed in most STEM careers and how the abacus can help develop these math skills, make solving problems very easy once you've learned the processes of using the Abacus. Um, but another advantage of the Abacus Bee is the fun and many regionals have activities revolving around STEM topics. This year a couple of our regionals had activities around learning the constellations and astronomy, but also a big one is just being around others who are like you. Often our students who are blind or have low vision are the only ones in their school district who have a visual impairment. So participating in an activity with others who use a cane, who read braille, who use large print or use magnification devices, this event is fully accessible by design.

Sara Brown 4:18

Okay. And this is the Abacus Bee, so I have to ask the all important question. Jennifer, do you know how to use an abacus?

Jennifer Brooks 4:26

Oh, so I can do basic math problems on an abacus, but once we get into the higher levels of multiplication and division, I definitely have to go look at my notes and review before I do those problems. Full honesty and transparency here. <laugh>,

Sara Brown 4:43

We love that. No, I think it's so cool. I, I honestly, I, when I saw, again when I was at the last Abacus Bee that we held, I'm like I , the last I saw an abacus was probably, I don't know , kindergarten, first grade a million years ago. And these kids are using this device that's been around for, you know, millennia. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> getting and solving these complicated problems. Can you detail how to use an abacus as best you can for this podcast?

Jennifer Brooks 5:11

Yeah , sure. So there are tons of , um, tutorials online and you can also check out the APH practice to Master Abacus app and that's practice with the number two Master Abacus app, which is actually free and you can go check it out and it has tutorials that will walk you through how to use an abacus. Um, but yes, so on an abacus we have 13 vertical rods with sliding beads and then there's a separator bar that runs the length of the abacus horizontally. And on each rod above the separator bar, there's a single bead, and then below that bar there are four beads. And if we start all the way on the right for the rod, the vertical rod that goes up and down, each of these rods represents a place value. Just like in writing a print or braille number, you know, a one and a zero makes 10 and that's the one is in the tens place and the zero is in the one's place. It's the same thing on the abacus. So the rod on the far right is the one's place. The second rod over to the left is the tens place, the third rod is the hundreds place and it goes all the way up to the trillions. I don't even know if I can write a number in the trillions. Um, <laugh>. So the single bead above the separator bar is the five bead and then the four beads below the separator bar are the one beads. So when these beads are pushed up against or down against the separator bar, then that's when we count their value. If there are no beads next to the separator bar, then that's just zeros. There are some terms that we use when talking about using the abacus. We say "clear" to mean that we push all the beads away from the separator bar so that abacus shows the number zero. Then we say set to mean writing a number. So I can take you through writing some numbers, like we could count to 10 and think through um, setting these numbers. So to write the number one or to set the number one, we move the one bead on the far right vertical bar up to the separator bar. And then we move the next bead up to set two and then the next one to set three and the next one up to set four. Now we have four beads below the separator bar and we've moved them all up. So now we have to use the five bead at the top to continue counting. And when we move the five bead down to the separator bar, we in the same motion move the other four beads back down to their original spot. So we wanna have one nice smooth motion and now we've counted to five to continue counting, we need another one bead, right? So we keep the five bead set against the separator bar and move a one bead up and then continue counting. So another bead would be seven and then eight and then nine. And now we've used all the beads in the ones place value. So we need to use the next column or the tens place value, just like writing in print or braille. The number 10, we use a one and a zero and it's the same on the abacus. So we're gonna move one bead up in the tens column and then make sure there are no beads next to the separator bar . In the ones column. Now we have one and zero and you've just counted to 10 using the abacus. Alright . Okay .

Sara Brown 8:55

Well I was with you and I was visualizing it, so I think I understand it. It's just amazing, you know, it's such a simple tool to use, it's such a simple tool to use and it's such an important tool, but I just feel like so many people don't and it's such a really cool thing and that's why I'm really happy and really excited for this advocacy and happy to have you on to talk more about this.

Jennifer Brooks 9:15

Thank you so much. And I agree because I think that, you know, it can be a little scary at first when we don't know a tool, but if we just learn and make it a little bit , uh, if we just learn a little bit about it, then that fear goes away. And that goes for teachers, parents, and students. And that's why we have the practice to Master Abacus app so that we can get that familiarity. Um, and the Abacus really is a great tool for children who are blind or have low vision. It makes math concrete, it makes it accessible from the very beginning. And a key mathematical practice is procedural fluency, basically being able to perform the math procedures flexibly accurately and efficiently quickly. And with the abacus you can have so much more fluency in working through complex math equations with this accessible and manipulative tool at our fingertips.

Sara Brown 10:16

And when you just said at complex math problems , um, again, when I poked my head into one of the, the, I, I guess the exam rooms where students were being timed to do the Abacus Bee, they had the Abacus and they had to do their, I think they had to show their work and they had to do it in braille. And I saw some of these math problems and I'm thinking, my goodness, I don't, I know I, I know I couldn't do that just with the calculator, but the fact that these students were doing it so fast and I , it was such a really cool scene and just a really cool moment to think that these kids, they're going places, they, they know exactly what they're doing and it just shows for me it sort of reiterated the importance of this, this, this event and math and stem because this is the product of it.

Jennifer Brooks 11:05

I love it. <laugh> . Yes, and our students, our students are provided, so at the Abacus Bee, both the regional events and the finals events , um, our students are broken up into, they, they sign up for a group and each group has different levels of math problems. And um, in the event itself, you have different rounds of math problems to solve. And so, and as the rounds go, like your first round, you might be like, yeah, God, this is so easy. But then as you go up through the rounds, it gets a little bit more challenging and students work on their own to solve the math problems, either with an abacus or with mental math because at some point after you've been using the abacus and you've learned those procedures, you may not actually need to physically move the beads. You can kind of do it in your head and know where the beads should be. And depending on the level in which you sign up, you might have addition and subtraction problems. For example, four plus nine minus three plus one minus one, and then you write your answer. And so you can't work it out on the piece on the paper, you have to do it either with your abacus or with a manipulative , um, or mentally. And then our highest level competitors will have a math problem such as "987x82" or what about "9,388/4" <laugh>?

Sara Brown 12:53

Nope, I was with you on that first one. "What's 10+3-2?" And I was with the very first one, but no ma'am. Um, <laugh> ,

Jennifer Brooks 13:02

Yeah, it's , that's why I'm so impressed by these students that attend. And I just love, you know, I want to see what we wanna see in the future is that these students who start at that four plus nine minus three, that eventually we can move up to those multiplication problems and division problems and see how far you can get in the Abacus Bee rounds.

Sara Brown 13:23

Yeah, it's so cool. And I, I did feel an overwhelming sense of pride <laugh> watching them just work their magic with advocacy and like you said, the mental math, just being able to, and like you said , you're right, I remember hearing that a lot of the students could just visualize using Abacus Bee and they're, they're sliding the beads over mentally and just like, wow, look at that. And I did. I felt very proud of them. Um, talk about when is this Abacus Bee going to be held and where, talk about those logistics, the logistical.

Jennifer Brooks 13:55

Aspect of it . Sure thing . I love it. So the regional events , uh, were held from September of this year, 2023 through November of 2023. So the fall of the school year. And then our finalists are being announced as we speak and the finals event will be held in March. So the top scores of the regional events , um, are then invited to the finals event where they'll compete from students from other states. The Abacus Bee finals will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, the home of APH. We had six regionals , um, that joined us this year. We have two of those regionals who are joining us for the second year in a row and four brand new regionals who just held , held their very first event. Uh, we will have a few students in the finals event who also participated last year as finalists, so we're excited to see them again. And then our finalists , um, like I said, will be coming from six states across the US We have Florida, Washington, Iowa, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Maryland all attending.

Sara Brown 15:12

That's exciting and that's exciting for the kids too, to be able to travel somewhere and put their skills to the test and show 'em off. Is there any changes that are new and exciting for this year that might be , um, different from the last Abacus Bee?

Jennifer Brooks 15:26

Well, each year we definitely are looking at, like we said, we have a few activities , uh, for the students, for the families. Um, last year, the families, because again, we had students from Florida and students from Washington that came to the finals. And so they're meeting students who are, you know , other students from across the country and making, maybe making new friends. Um, and parents got to meet each other. Family members got to meet others from across the country. So , uh, one of the requests was that they get to have a little bit more time getting to know each other. And so we are definitely building that into our finals event this year. We're gonna have a meet and greet day before the finals competition so that we'll have some activities , um, do something fun together, meet each other, and then we will compete the following day,

Sara Brown 16:18

Let the competition begin. That's it, <laugh> . And my final question I always like to ask in these interviews is, is there anything else you would like to share about the Abacus Bee or say about the Abacus Bee?

Jennifer Brooks 16:34

Yes, actually look forward next year , uh, we will be putting out an announcement for regionals. We want to expand the states that are participating in a regionals event. So if you would like to challenge yourself, challenge your peers in your math skills, get out your abacus, get your TVI to brush off their Abacus and start practicing now, we will announce , uh, the regionals for the next year, 2024 for the fall. Um, maybe you can join us at a finals event as well.

Sara Brown 17:13

All right , Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on today and telling us about the Abacus Bee,

Jennifer Brooks 17:18

Thank you so much for having me. I just love that we are spreading the word, getting the word out about this really cool event and also about the skills that we need to be excelling in with math. So thank you so much for having me and maybe I'll see you at the next finals.

Sara Brown 17:36

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers . I've put links in the show notes about the Abacus Bee and I've also put links in the show notes about the next Connect the Dots powered by PNC foundation event. It'll be held on Saturday, February 17, at the Main Library in downtown Louisville. Again, thank you so much for listening and as always, be sure to look for ways you can be a changemaker this week.