On March 1st, Ogre District Education Department will organize a logic game “Ogre Puzzle Day” for the first time, gathering nearly 100 of the most enthusiastic and smartest high schoolers from Ogre Municipality. The teams will have to solve 10 logic tasks, which are based on the game principles designed by the prestigious Harvard University.
In Autumn 2023, Riga Municipality organized a logic game “Riga Puzzle Day”, which gathered 172 youngsters. This year, Ogre State Gymnasium and Ogre District Education Department have taken up the initiative to bring this game to the high schoolers from Ogre Municipality.
Based on the game principles designed by Harvard University, the first game has been adapted in Latvia, which has become a tradition among U.S. youngsters. Similarly, other Latvian schools are also planning to introduce it among their students as an educational activity.
The game aims to enhance students’ interest in information technologies and engagement in programming, while addressing the prevailing stigma that coding is complex and boring, and the subsequent labor shortage in information technology. Youngsters’ involvement in resolving logic tasks fosters students’ collaboration skills, problem-solving techniques, and develops their creative thinking skills.
Riga Business School, as a department of Riga Technical University, introduced the content of the world-renowned computer science course CS50, developed at Harvard University, into Latvian secondary schools two years ago. The translation of the teaching materials and training of programming teachers has resolved the lack of quality teaching materials in rapidly changing sectors as IT. “Puzzle Day” is traditionally organized as part of CS50, inviting not only the course participants but also their friends.
“Ogre Municipality offers its high schoolers an up-to-date secondary education, particularly through versatile cooperation with Riga Technical University. We hope that “Ogre Puzzle Day” inspires both students and teachers to develop coding skills. We hope that coding will be successfully acquired in Programming I and Programming II courses at schools, in the district and, in the Coding Olympiads,” as the head of the Ogre District Education Department points out.
“It is very important to stimulate students’ interest and understanding of scientific knowledge nowadays. That’s why we are happy to support ”Ogre Puzzle Day”, as it is a great opportunity for high school students not only to develop their abilities to solve more complex problems and logic exercises, but also to network with each other, expanding the sense of community, and adapting the prestigious Harvard University methods,” says Kerli Vares, Head of Luminor Latvia.
The event is valuable to teachers, as in parallel to the students solving the tasks, there will be an opportunity for the teachers to take part in an informative session to develop their professional and personal skills.
Information about the application process to the logic game has been provided to all Ogre District secondary schools. Students are invited to contact their class teacher or the school management to sign up for the logic game.
“Ogre Puzzle Day is organized by Ogre District Education Department, Riga Business School in cooperation with Ogre State Gymnasium and Luminor bank. The event is also supported by MyFitness and BrainGames.
More information about the logic game ‘’Ogre Puzzle Day’’ is here. The event will take place at Ogre State Gymnasium, Gunara Astras 1, Ogre.
