Math club crunches numbers in Blaine
April 23, 2008
By Laura Geggel
What is the sum of the first 100 numbers?
Instead of scribbling a mess of addition or punching100 numbers into a calculator, math club students at Chief Kanim Middle School could churn out an answer before another person could add the numbers under 10.
The formula? X(X+1) divided by two.
“We’ll do some things they won’t do in their normal classroom,” said math club advisor Todd Henderson. “I give them some trick formulas.”
The math club meets once a week after school in Henderson’s science classroom. His former career in environmental consulting gave Henderson the background to teach mathematics for two years before he transitioned to teaching science at Chief Kanim Middle School. But he couldn’t say goodbye to the math club.
Henderson and 19 math club students traveled to Blaine April 18-19 for the Washington state Math Championship for grades five through eight.
The five Chief Kanim math club teams placed in the middle of the pack, with the two sixth-grade teams landing at 40 and 47 out of 81 teams. The seventh-grade team scored 38 out of 57 groups and the two eighth-grade teams got 32 and 45 out of 50 teams.
Henderson didn’t mind the placements. Some math clubs, he said, are test-in only and meet every day of the school week.
“My number one goal is to have fun,” Henderson said.
At the upcoming Seamont math competition, Chief Kanim Middle School normally places first or second.
At the Blaine championships, more than 1,200 students from about 200 math teams took grade-level based individual tests, a mental math challenge and sections of algebra, geometry and probability.
Sixth-grader Annapurni Sriram said she liked the mental math.
“All of us were figuring it out in the back while the person was doing it,” Sriram said. “They couldn’t do anything in the air or write stuff down – no calculations on paper. It was fun comparing answers.”
At a club meeting the week of the competition, students poured over math problems to prep for the individual math test.
“Most of these kids are in honor math,” said Henderson.
Students can opt into honors based on WASL math scores, teacher recommendations and math grades.
Eighth-grader Alaina Morris first realized she liked math in sixth grade when she discovered she placed into the advanced class.
“It comes easily to me,” said Morris, who joined math club with her friends. The extra attention to math even teaches Morris study skills and helps her stay on top of her homework.
For Sriram, math club provides her another outlet to integrate math into her life. In addition to calculating digits at school and math club, Sriram’s father devises mathematical activities for his daughter at home.
“Right now, we’re doing an online stock thing,” Sriram said. “He was showing me about percentages earlier.”
After the students finished their individual tests at math club, they formed groups to compare their answers and methods. If students encounter a difficult question, they consult Henderson.
“Some of the things they’re doing, I can’t do,” said Henderson, who took classes up to calculus in college. “We look at it and I’ll sit down side-by-side and we’ll figure out how to do a problem together. I like doing that and they like doing that.”
Chris Koczara, an eighth grader, said he likes snacking with his friends as they tackle math problems.
“Most of the stuff is more advanced than what I’m learning in class,” Koczara said.
With the tricks he learned from Henderson, Koczara will be able to tell you the answer to 100(101) divided by two. The result is 5,050 and that’s his final answer.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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