Caribou Help / FAQ
Please look for your question among the >200 questions in our FAQ before emailing us. Caribou aims to be 100% self-service. This helps keep our services affordable.
To use this Help Tree, choose the appropriate category and subcategories. If you are unable to find your question, use the Contact Us form located in the leaves of this tree. Thank you for your help.
Help Tree → For Caribou Coordinators (Teachers) → Running the Contest / Problems on Contest Day → Students / Coordinators away on Contest Day
Questions & Answers:
I will be away on Contest Day.
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I will be away on Contest Day.
Answer:
If the Caribou Contest Coordinator will be away, it is important that they make sure that the contest can be run in their absence. To prepare for a scenario where you cannot run the contest yourself, we recommend leaving a copy of the Contest Day Guide, your Caribou Coordinator sign-in information (email, password), as well as a list of participating students and their access codes.
To obtain a list of participating students and their access codes, sign in, and go to Manage & Print Access Codes. You can choose Print Names and Codes to get a printable list sorted by first name. To sort by another criterion, choose instead Edit Names and Credits and click on the heading you want to sort by. Then, print the page (in Chrome, you can print only the table by dragging your cursor to select the table, right-clicking and selecting ‘Print…’) or copy-paste the table into another program (e.g. Word, Excel).
I am a substitute teacher and I am supposed to run the Caribou Contest today. What do I need to know/have?
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I am a substitute teacher and I am supposed to run the Caribou Contest today. What do I need to know/have?
Answer:
Ideally the Caribou Coordinator should have left a copy of the Contest Day Guide, their Coordinator login information, as well as a list with the names and access codes of participating students, either with you or with the school administration. If you have these, you have everything you need. Simply follow the instructions.
If you do not have these things, first try to get in touch with the Caribou Coordinator you are replacing, who can quickly provide you with this information. If this is not possible, Contact Us.
Our Caribou Coordinator is absent, we cannot log in to their account nor contact them, and we don’t have our students’ codes. Help!
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Our Caribou Coordinator is absent, we cannot log in to their account nor contact them, and we don’t have our students’ codes. Help!
Answer:
Please Contact Us and we may be able to gain you access to the Coordinator’s account.
In the future, please follow the instructions in the Contest Coordinator Instructions for making a backup plan: leave a copy of the Contest Day Guide, your Coordinator login credentials, as well as a list of all your students and their access codes with your school’s administration.
A student will be away on contest day.
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A student will be away on contest day.
Answer:
If a student will not be able to write the contest at school on the Wednesday or the Thursday, they may be allowed to write the contest at home. They must promise not to use calculators, not to get outside help, and not to communicate the questions to other students. If necessary, their Coordinator may have to shift the school’s time window (See the item Can our students write the contest before 7:30am or after 3:30pm?). Students planning to write at home must let their Caribou Coordinator know, as the Coordinator will receive an alert about the IP address not matching that of the school. If the Coordinator knows that the student will be writing at home, they can ignore this alert.
Our school will be on holiday/break on the day of the contest. Can students write the contest from home?
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Our school will be on holiday/break on the day of the contest. Can students write the contest from home?
Answer:
If students will not be able to write the contest at school on the Wednesday or the Thursday, they may be allowed to write the contest at home. They must promise not to use calculators, not to get outside help, and not to communicate the questions to other students. You can warn students that we have automatic correlation tests in place to detect possible unfair participation.
Coordinators should inform students and parents that even though students are writing from home, they can still only access the contest during the school’s Contest Time Window. If necessary, their Coordinator can shift the school’s time window (See the item Can our students write the contest before 7:30am or after 3:30pm?).
Because students will be writing from home the Coordinator will receive an alert about the IP address not matching that of the school. Since the Coordinator knows that the student will be writing at home, they can ignore this alert.
There is a teacher labour strike.
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There is a teacher labour strike.
Answer:
If there is a teacher labour strike, you may not be allowed to supervise the contest yourself. In this case, you could ask another member of staff or a parent to supervise the contest in your stead, the students could write the contest in a library, or if necessary the students can write the contest at home. See the item Can a student write the contest at home?.
Can a student write the contest at home?
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Can a student write the contest at home?
Answer:
It is preferred that students write the contest at school or in another institution under non-parent supervision. However, if the circumstances do not allow this, the student can be allowed to write at home. As usual, each student will need to know the Access Code and name associated with their account in order to sign in. They must promise not to use calculators, not to get outside help, and not to communicate the questions to other students.
If necessary, Caribou Coordinators can shift the school’s contest time window (See Can our students write the contest before 7:30am or after 3:30pm?). Students planning to write at home must let their Caribou Coordinator know, as the Coordinator will receive an alert about the IP address not matching that of the school. If the Coordinator knows that the student will be writing at home, they can ignore this alert.
Although our school/class did not participate in this contest, a student participated from home. Please remove this student's test record.
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Although our school/class did not participate in this contest, a student participated from home. Please remove this student's test record.
Answer:
Caribou Contests’ priority is making math fun, engaging, and accessible to students everywhere. Please bear this in mind. If there is no evidence that the students broke the Contest Rules, then there is no reason for us to delete the contest entry. Let’s look at some example situations, below.
Let us say your school or class does not participate in a contest. For example, this might be because there is a school holiday, students are on a school trip or family vacation, teachers are on strike, teachers have a Professional Development or Professional Activity day, the school is closed due to a snow storm, a sand storm, or insecure traffic conditions.
All of these are not reason enough to forbid a student to participate in the contest.
Especially when the contest participation was paid for by the parents, we are contractually bound to provide the service that has been paid for.
If the contest participation was paid by the school or teacher, and they take the stand that students who wrote this extra contest have an unfair advantage in the Caribou Cup compared to classmates who did not, we still cannot delete the contest entry. However, we can remove their contest entry from the contest and Caribou Cup rankings.
If a student is absent for a long period of time, for example they are in hospital and wish to participate from there, then of course the student should be allowed to participate.
It can be different if the student is absent from school on the contest day, perhaps staying home due to illness, and participates in the contest from home. If their parent or guardian promises to uphold the Contest Rules and there is no evidence of foul-play, the entry can be kept. However, if you have reason to suspect the student has cheated, for example if you get a notification about a strong jump in ranking and you believe they are not capable of achieving such a score under normal conditions, then Contact Us and we will help you review the case.
Our school will be on holiday/break on the day of the contest. Can students write the contest from home?
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Our school will be on holiday/break on the day of the contest. Can students write the contest from home?
Answer:
If students will not be able to write the contest at school on the Wednesday or the Thursday, they may be allowed to write the contest at home. They must promise not to use calculators, not to get outside help, and not to communicate the questions to other students. You can warn students that we have automatic correlation tests in place to detect possible unfair participation.
Please inform students and parents that even though students are writing from home, they can still only access the contest during the school’s Contest Time Window. If necessary, their Coordinator can shift the school’s time window (See the item Can our students write the contest before 7:30am or after 3:30pm?).
Because students will be writing from home the Coordinator will receive an alert about the IP address not matching that of the school. Since the Coordinator knows that the student will be writing at home, they can ignore this alert.
A student had to leave part way through their test. What do I do?
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A student had to leave part way through their test. What do I do?
Answer:
If the student cannot continue the test at a later time, the solutions they did answer are submitted automatically and their test will be marked based on those answers. If the student is coming back, they can complete the test again. You will simply need to remove their test entry, which will allow them to begin the test again. You should, however, limit their time as the student had already time to think about the questions (and has time in the break to think about the questions).
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