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March 14, 2010

3 schools to celebrate 'math day'

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

MADISON -- Three area schools are collaborating to make math more exciting for students.

Madison Area Junior High School will host the first-ever "math day" Monday, bringing together about 300 students from the junior high and Athens Elementary School and about 100 students from Skowhegan Area High School, for about four hours of creative math activities.

The high school students will present workshops on various math topics to the fifth- through eighth-graders to teach about geometry, graphs, probability, algebra and fractions in a hands-on way, said Craig Campbell, a math teacher at the high school.

Al Veneziano, who has been a sixth-grade math teacher at the junior high for nearly 24 years, said he hopes math day will help students get excited about math, while showing the high school students a little about teaching.

"I think it creates an excitement for math, not only for our students but for the Skowhegan high school students. Some of them are apprehensive about being a teacher for the day," he said.

Veneziano said it is valuable for schools in different districts to work together. "The more you can collaborate with other districts and join together to do things I think is important," he said. "We're all looking for ideas to encourage the kids and improve what they're doing. I think this is just one idea on how to do that."

Under the direction of teachers, the high school students will present six different activities -- from making kaleidoscope designs using geometry software to using dice to learn about probability -- and each group of 12 to 15 elementary and middle school students will participate in four of the activities.

Veneziano said math day ideally should be on "Pi Day," which is today, March 14, to celebrate the mathematical constant pi, which is rounded to 3.14. Because that's today, a Sunday, the schools opted for Monday.

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@centralmaine.com

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