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3 common classroom challenges and suggestions for handling them

If you are going to coach a math club, it is likely that you will come across at least some of the following challenges: A classroom full of students at different levels, despite the fact that most students in the math club self-selected to be there Creating an atmosphere where students feel emotionally safe enough to participate…
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STEAM powered Math Club

I found out first hand how important art instruction is for teaching math from some of our math competitions. When there were problems involving cubes, such as counting their surface area or volume, the students’ ability to make a sketch in the high pressured environment of the competition came into play. It didn’t have  to be a…
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In the footsteps of Archimedes: celebrating Pi day

Nowadays, thanks to modern day computers, we have instant access to the approximation of π (the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter) to any degree of accuracy. But back in antiquity, getting a good approximation of π was elusive and difficult. Over 2000 ago, the Greek mathematician and scientist Archimedes derived an accurate approximation of π using…
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Math Club Materials: academic programs and competitions

Let’s say you do decide to hold competitions in your math club. What are your options? Much of this depends on the grade level of your students. I will describe our experience with the various competition programs in which we have engaged. We started our students in math competitions when they were in 4th grade….
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