April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
FUN, TIMES FOUR
Math club challenges St. Ambrose students
These students aren't getting extra help or receiving extra credit. They're in school before the first bell rings to take part in a brand-new math team.
"This is my second year teaching at St. Ambrose," said Lily Spera, the fifth-through-eighth-grade math teacher who's in charge of the group. "Last year, I started an in-house math club."
That club included students in grades three through eight, with a wide range of math abilities.
"Some kids expressed an interest in competing," Mrs. Spera said, so she did some research, eventually connecting with MATHCOUNTS, a non-profit organization that promotes "fun and accessible" math challenges for middle school students in the United States.
Mrs. Spera signed up for both the organization's National Math Club program and its competition series. The program provides materials and activities to keep her students interested.
Quartet in club
This year, the St. Ambrose math club has four students, all between fifth and eighth grade.
"I really like math and I thought it would be really fun," said Isadora Lee, a sixth-grader. "It's fun doing problems and doing math stuff."
Her brother, fifth-grader Andrew Lee, said he likes sports, but he joined the club because he plans to be an engineer when he grows up. In fact, his favorite math club project was when group members each had to construct a "building" out of pipe cleaners, calculating who could make the tallest building with the least amount of materials.
Mrs. Spera noted that the club meetings begin with math warm-ups, a timed worksheet the students must complete without using calculators. The warm-ups act as "mind stretches," she teacher said.
From there, the quartet of students move on to word problems involving fractions, algebra, equations, geometry and statistics. Isadora not only enjoys the club, but said she likes to wake up early to take on the problem-solving challenges.
Competing soon
Lately, the math club meetings have focused on preparing for an upcoming MATHCOUNTS competition, to be held at St. Ambrose during Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 31-Feb. 6.
The three-hour MATHCOUNTS competitions consist of four rounds. The first, called the Sprint Round, has 30 questions each student must complete in 40 minutes. Next is the Target Round, where students have eight questions to finish in about 25 minutes.
The Team Round has 10 questions the group works on together for 20 minutes. A select few then move on to the Countdown Round, where students answer questions orally.
After the school competition, the students will have the opportunity to go on to the chapter competition in Niskayuna. The competitions rate students using a point system; those who attain enough points could make it to state and national levels.
"I feel like I'm pretty ready for it," said fifth-grader Peter Biegun. "I like the challenge of the problems."
High hopes
Because the program is designed for grades six through eight, many of the students in the St. Ambrose math club will be competing at a higher level than their actual grade.
For Andrew Bulalo, a fifth-grader, that's his favorite part of being in the club. "You can learn things that you haven't learned [yet] and it can help you later in life," he said, noting that he wants to pursue a math-related career someday. "It helps me learn the math before I get to the grade."
The club members are "extremely hard-working," said Mrs. Spera. "They love to learn and do math," and love to win, making the competition aspect particularly appealing.
"They get nervous," the teacher noted, but it doesn't stop them."
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