Math Club competed in the Indiana Math League Competition online in Room A331 on Jan. 22 after school. The Math Club will continue to meet in Room A331 every Wednesday after school. Allison Shen, club president and junior, said the individual competition was still in progress and will remain a monthly activity until Math Club either wins or gets taken off the roster.
“Math League is a competition we do every month. It’s more of an individual event but it just allows us to use our own mathematical knowledge to solve problems,” Shen said. “This is one of our only individual competitions where you work alone.”
Next club meeting, Shen said the Math Club will be taking a break from rigorous events such as math competitions and focusing on a project to ease into the new semester.
“We’re pitching a mathematical minute,” Shen said. “Basically filming a math-themed or math-based parody of a TV show or music video. It’s more of a fun thing rather than just doing straight up math problems.”
Not only is it an activity to lessen the workload, Shen said this project stimulates creativity and team building, which is necessary for future team math competitions.
“It promotes teamwork and we can learn about other team members when making the video, editing the video, and so on,” she said. “It helps people conceptualize ideas with music which is a great way for people to memorize the concepts and learn them without looking at an answer sheet, it’s a mnemonic tool.”
Club sponsor Peter Beck said that outside of math projects, the Math Club is looking to participate in more local competitions.
“We’re still looking for some additional contests that we’re going to do,” Beck said. “I’m going to ask students to volunteer to be a part of the Mathworks Competition”
The Mathworks Competition is a 14-hour maths contest online where students participate in groups to solve questions in the subject of Applied Maths. The competition is free and available for high school students in junior or senior year.
“[I’m still] asking [Math Club] as a group seeing if they want to form any teams,” Beck said. “There is already one team formed, and only one more team [can be] formed.”
Beck said the first few Math Club meetings will be less intense. “This is our first meeting back from winter break, so it’s kind of like an introduction [back to Math Club].”