A popular Colombian educational YouTuber and Jalisco’s Ministry of Education joined forces and successfully set a new Guinness World Record for an online math class with the most attendants — 213,586 of them.
And yes, there was a question-and-answer session afterward.
The record to beat was only 1,600 students, but Julio Alberto Ríos Gallego, a civil engineer known online as “Julioprofe” to his 4.39 million subscribers on YouTube, was in it to win. He had already lost a bid for a Guinness record last year when he tried to break the record for the most people attending an in-person math class at Talent Land, an annual conference in Jalisco for inventors and entrepreneurs.
He failed to reach his goal when over 800 of his participants were disqualified.
This year’s online class lasted nearly an hour on the Jalisco Ministry of Education’s virtual forum, Recrea Academy, followed by a period for questions. Ríos, who explains math and physics problems on his channel, spoke during the virtual class about how mathematics applies to other subjects.
“Imagine a box or a kit of tools that accompanies us during our lives,” he said. “Some are simple, others are more sophisticated, but all serve some purpose. Logically in the case of mathematics, these tools are going to serve to resolve situations and solve problems in different fields.”
Ríos received congratulations from Jalisco Education Minister Juan Carlos Flores Miramontes, but perhaps the most heartfelt support came from supporters online, many of whom made visual memes expressing congratulations or hopes beforehand that he would be successful.
“If you complain about the trash content on the internet,” said one Twitter user urging people online to participate in the record-breaking class, “this is the moment to support Julioprofe.”
Source: Milenio (sp)
CORRECTION: The word Columbian may refer to a Yukon River paddlewheeler, a type of grouse or a music hall in Kansas but it was not the correct word to describe Julioprofe’s nationality. He is Colombian.