Mount Si High School students tutor Math Magicians
December 13, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Armed with a pencil, paper and their intellect, Snoqualmie Elementary School’s Math Magicians whizzed through the Math Olympiad Nov. 26. The students had been preparing for the Olympiad — an international online test — for about two months.
Fifth grade student Haley Holmberg at Snoqualmie Elementary prepares for the Math Olympiad, an international online math exam.
“You don’t get a grade out of this,” said fifth-grade teacher Luke Talbott, Math Magician advisor. “This is just to show what you know.”
The group of 10 scored 46th out of 74 teams that took the 15-question, multiple-choice exam.
Ian Fursman scored the highest from his school with an impressive 14 out of 15 correct answers. Abby Bateman and Amanda Antoch scored second highest with scores of 13.
This was the Math Magicians’ first test. The group began in September after two teachers —Talbott and Mount Si High School math teacher Tracy Petroske — joined forces to create a club for Snoqualmie Elementary students to challenge themselves in math.
Talbott found interested fifth graders and Petroske rounded up five Mount Si students who excelled in AP calculus, chemistry or physics.
The students meet for a half-hour every Friday to review math homework and learn new material. The high school students, who come after their early-release Fridays, visit the fifth-grade students to coach them through concepts and solutions.
Fifth-grade students joined the group for a variety of reasons. Alden Huschle said the Math Magicians provided him with extra help.
“I joined because math isn’t really my strong point,” Huschle said. “I wanted to learn more about it.”
“I love math,” fifth-grader Autumn Dukich said. “It’s one of my favorite subjects in school.”
Dukich called the Math Magicians material “ a little harder, but it’s challenging, which I love.”
“It’s stretches my mind,” Fursman said. “It’s a lot more challenging than class.”
Joey Petroske said his class was spending time on division and estimating.
“Math wasn’t challenging to me,” Petroske said.
Talbott said he enjoyed teaching the fifth-grade students more complex math concepts like algebra, advanced fractions and multiplication.
“They’re a sharp bunch of kids,” Talbott said.
Mount Si seniors Francis Gill and Emily Brodie taught the elementary-school students a lesson on proportion Dec. 5.
“It was awesome,” Talbott said. “It’s tough for high school kids to figure out how to kid down their language.”
Brodie said she was impressed the fifth graders could do all of the problems, especially since they have yet to learn key algebra skills.
“They will do it a very different way, but they will get the right answer,” Brodie said.
For example, if a question asks the students to find the hundredth number in a sequence, the fifth grade students will count it out.
“They are so intelligent and so much fun to work with,” Brodie said.
Many of the fifth grade students do math outside of the classroom. Haley Holmberg goes to Kumon twice a week and Autumn Dukich said her mother buys her a math exercise book to complete every summer break. Amanda Antoch said she uses mental math to add up her score at gymnastics meets.
Online math games like Ghost Blasters and Snorks Long Division capture the attention of other students. Many of the games are linked on fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Gjurasic’s Web site, http://ses.svsd410.org/Gjurasic/Gjurasic.htm.
The Math Magicians have two more math competitions — one in Seattle and the other in Wenatchee.
The high school students said they looked forward to coaching the students every week.
“I think it’s really important to have a community of people who value learning,” Brodie said. “Math doesn’t have to be this dry thing that you can only learn from a book.”
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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