Mathnasium Gives Thanks at Thanksgiving

It's that time of year when we reflect upon all that we're thankful for, and at Mathnasium we have a lot on our list! Here are just a few things we're thankful for this holiday season.


1. Our Students

We get so much joy from seeing our students' faces as they conquer a difficult math concept, and we love having fun with them as we make math make sense! It's such a satisfying feeling to take a subject that frustrates so many students, and see their attitude transform. They grow confidence and begin looking forward to school!

2. Our Parents

When parents get involved in their child's math progress, we are overjoyed. Parents know sending their child to Mathnasium is going to help them reach their math potential. So many of our parents work with their kids to practice "mathing" at home as well. Math excellence is a team effort between instructors, students, and parents, and we're glad to have such dedicated team members!


3. Our Instructors

Our instructors aren't just math whizzes, they are also cool people who love making a difference in our students' lives. They know how to make math make sense, and also how to make it FUN!

4. Mental Math Tricks

In the classroom and outside of it, you need math skills at your fingertips. We're so grateful for the mental math tricks we are able to use in our daily lives to make countless tasks simpler.


5. The STEM World Around Us

Scientists and engineers are landing on comets, designing artificial limbs to improve people's lives, building environmentally sound cars and houses, and exploring new star systems in our universe—all of this is within our fingertips because of math. What used to be sci-fi is now becoming reality!

It has never been cooler to excel at math, and we couldn't be prouder to be math nerds.


6. Report Cards

Report card time is usually considered a pretty cringe-worthy moment in any student's semester, but Mathnasium students and instructors look forward to them! Nothing makes us happier than seeing those grades jump from C's and D's to A's and B's. We love seeing your report cards, and hope you'll share them with us often!


7. Teachers 

We know so many teachers truly want their students to excel, and they do everything in their power to make that happen, including spending money out of their own pockets to create interesting lesson plans. To all the teachers who work hard each day, we are glad to have you as partners in our students' math development, and we thank you for your dedication!



What are YOU thankful for this holiday season? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook!

Thanksgiving Problem Set

Want to test your math skills and get into the Thanksgiving spirit? Try our Thanksgiving word problems!

Lower Elementary:

Question: At a Thanksgiving dinner, 6 relatives are visiting from Nevada, 7 relatives are visiting from California, and 4 relatives are visiting from Arizona. How many total relatives are visiting?

Answer: 17 relatives

Solution: To find the number of relatives visiting, we need to add the members visiting from the different states. So, we need to add 6 + 7 + 4. Notice that if we add 6 + 4 first, we would get 10. So, 6 + 7 + 4 = 10 + 7 = 17. There are 17 relatives visiting.

Upper Elementary:

Question: The Morgans had pumpkin pie for their Thanksgiving dessert. The mom ate 1/4 of the pie. The dad ate 2/3 of what was remaining after the mom ate her portion. The daughter ate 1/2 of what was remaining after the dad ate his portion. How much of the pie is left after the daughter ate her portion?

Answer: 1/8 of the pie

Solution: From the whole pie, the mom ate 1/4 of it. 1 – 1/4 = 3/4. There is 3/4 of the pie left after the mom ate her portion. The dad ate 2/3 of what was remaining. Breaking 3/4 into 3 equal parts, each part is equal to 1/4. If 1/3 of 3/4 is 1/4, then 2/3 of 3/4 is 2/4 = 1/2. So the dad ate 1/2 of the pie. This means that there is 3/4 – 1/2 = 1/4 of the pie left for the daughter. The daughter ate half of what was remaining. Half of 1/4 is 1/8. There is 1/8 of the pie left after the daughter ate her portion.

Middle School:

Question: Right before Thanksgiving, a turkey went on sale from $20 to $17. What was the amount of the discount?

Answer: 15%

Solution: To find the percent discount, find the difference between the original and sale price and divide by the original price. $20 – $17 = $3. Now, we have 3/20. Since percent means for each hundred, one way to find the percent is to make the denominator equal to 100. 3/20 = 15/100. So, the turkey is on sale at a 15% discount.

Algebra and Up:

Question: The Goldmans are playing a game of football after their Thanksgiving meal. Bob threw the football and its path can be traced by the function h(t) = –t² + 3t + 10 where t is the time from when Bob threw the football in seconds. At what time will the football hit the ground?

Answer: 5 seconds

Solution: To find when the football hits the ground, we need to set h(t) = 0.
0 = –t² + 3t + 10
Multiply both sides by –1.
0 = t² – 3t – 10
Factor the polynomial.
0 = (t – 5)(t + 2).
Set each factor equal to 0 and solve for t.
t – 5 = 0
t = 5
t + 2 = 0
t = –2
t = 5 and –2. It does not make sense that the ball hit the ground –2 seconds after Bob threw the ball, so that means the ball hits the ground 5 seconds after it was thrown.

DIY TriMathlon: Rubik's Cube Challenge

Were you unable to attend our recent 4th Annual TriMathlon? Do you still want to join in the TriMathlon challenge fun? Today we'll share with you how you can create a fun and challenging DIY TriMathlon event to test your child's math skills!

Our TriMathlon sponsor, You Can Do the Rubik's Cube, provided our final National Tie-Breaker challenge. To recreate this challenge at home, you'll need a few materials.

What you'll need:

• 1 Rubik's cube
• 1 set of blank stickers and a magic marker (you can also buy numbered stickers and/or Rubik's sized stickers)
• a stopwatch

Instructions:

1) First prepare your Rubik's cube for the challenge. Place numbered stickers on each side of the cube, following the picture guidelines below (note: the Rubik’s logo corresponds to 0):

2) You are now ready to begin your challenge! Place the Rubik's cube on the table in front of your contestant(s). Show them the Rubik's Cube Challenge Prompt below:

Once your contestant understands the challenge, set your stopwatch for 5 minutes. Signal that it's time to start, and begin your stopwatch countdown. Four minutes into the challenge, warn your contestant that there is only one minute left. After 5 minutes are up, tell your contestant to place the Rubik's cube on the table with the side they want scored facing up.

3) It's scoring time! Place the Rubik's cube on the official Mathnasium TriMathlon Rubik's Challenge scoring sheet, then add up the numbers on the side facing up with help from your contestant.

 

After the scores are in, as an extra exercise, have your contestant try to figure out the highest score possible using this configuration.

(Answer: It’s 77)

Make sure to save the scoring and comparison of scores until the challenge is over, so that students do not feel defeated midway through the challenge.

4) Looking for more fun Rubik’s Cube challenges? Try these additional activities:

Do the challenge again, this time specifying that the red side of the Rubik’s Cube be subtracted from the total, rather than added. Try to find the highest score.

Do the challenge again, this time trying to put together the lowest sum.

Have your contestant solve the Rubik’s cube normally, and see if they notice anything interesting (for example, the stickers may face different directions.)

Make your own configuration of numbers that differs from the final TriMathlon challenge and try to find the highest score.

Can you think of any fun challenges to do with the Rubik’s Cube? Let us know in the comments! If you complete our TriMathlon Rubik’s challenge, please share photos or video with us on Facebook and/or Twitter.

TriMathlon 2014 Winner's Circle

Our 4th annual TriMathlon has officially come to a close. We had a fantastic Tie-Breaker event on October 24th and 25th, with 62 Round One winners competing in a top secret final challenge across 43 different Mathnasium centers to determine who would join our Grand Prize Winner's Circle.

Now the cat's out of the bag, and we can share the details of our Tie-Breaker event! Our sponsor, You Can Do the Rubik's Cube, provided a fun and difficult final challenge. Check out what our competitors were asked to do in their Tie-Breaker event:

Twelve elementary school students finished the Tie-Breaker Competition with grand prizes. A top TriMathlon finish is no easy task, as competitors were up against the top scorers in their grade level across all participating Mathnasium locations. This year’s grand prize winners received a trophy, a Rubik’s prize package, and a scholarship to Mathnasium.

Jaiden Shah of Mathnasium of Spotswood

Congratulations to our 2014 TriMathlon Grand Prize Winners!

Grade 2

1^st Place: Minh Tran, Mathnasium of Lake Charles

2^nd Place: Yael Marler, Mathnasium of Lake Mary

3^rd Place: Sanjay Anand, Mathnasium of Mountain View-Los Altos

Grade 3

1^st Place: Sumedh Vangara, Mathnasium of Germantown MD

2^nd Place: Gavin Gershon, Mathnasium of Cherry Hill

3^rd Place: Abhishek Jagannathan, Mathnasium of Oak Park

Grade 4

1^st Place*: Jaiden Shah, Mathnasium of Spotswood

1^st Place*: Joshua Monickaraj, Mathnasium of Pittsford-Brighton

3^rd Place: Simon Koski, Mathnasium of Almaden

* tie for first place

Grade 5

1^st Place: Chirag V., Mathnasium of Issaquah

2^nd Place: Aman Tewari, Mathnasium of North Austin

3^rd Place: Vithul R., Mathnasium of Issaquah

Thanks to all the centers and students that participated in the TriMathlon. Your student participation this year raised $32,230 for local schools! 

The TriMathlon was made possible thanks to generous sponsorship from You Can Do the Rubik's Cube, Lakeshore Learning, Smarties®, and PrintingForLess®.

We hope you’ll join us in congratulating all of our winners and participants on a successful TriMathlon! We look forward to seeing you again next year!

Fun Math Costumes for Halloween

Halloween is almost here! Are you looking for some costume inspiration this year? Look no further — we've rounded up some of our favorite math-related costumes! 

Pumpkin Pi

It's the time of year when we add pumpkin to everything - why not 

dress up like a Pumpkin π?

(image via Shermane King)

Super Pi

Superheroes + π? Yes please! 
Don't forget your cape and headband for a truly epic Super Pi costume.

(image via CostumeWorks.com)

Snakes on a Plane

What a pun-tastic take on planes!

 pic.twitter.com/gGdziMlyK4
— LesterBPearson CHS (@LBPearsonCHS) October 31, 2013

(image via Lester B. Pearson CHS)

Haunted Homework

Our Mathnasium students are never afraid of math homework or tests, but you're sure to scare someone with this Haunted Homework costume from Costume Works. 

(image via CostumeWorks.com)

Calculator

Who knew graphing calculators could be so cute?

(image via zombiecharlesdarwin)

Take your textbook along to show how you use your calculator in real life!

(image via Bayli Palmer)

Rubik's Cube

Love math puzzles? Dress up like one of our favorite brain-busters—the Rubik's cube! 

Design Nerd has instructions on a DIY Rubik's cube costume - check out their tutorial for tips on making your own cube costume.

(image via DesignNerd)

Möbius Strip

The Möbius strip is a surface with only one side, one boundary component and no fixed orientation. With some clever fabric manipulation, you can make your own Möbius costume. Head over to MY Studio to learn more about this Möbius dress!

(image via J. Meejin Yoon/MY Studio)

Numbers

Why not give a shout out to your favorite number by becoming it for Halloween?

(image via AllCostumes.com)

Count von Count from Sesame Street

A true math celebrity, the Count always finds a way to bring any conversation back to counting. Make sure to brush up on your Count facts, such as his favorite number. (It's 34,969, by the way. According to the Count, "it's a square-root thing.")

(image via Frogstar)

The awesome folks at Mathnasium of West Knoxville love to celebrate Halloween with a "Halloweenie Roast," where they roast hot dogs and dress up in math-related costumes. Check out their amazingly clever pun-tastic costumes:

Doro-Theorem and Her Little Dog Total

Who better to explain complex math theorems than Doro-Theorem? 

Total is standing by to help!

Co-Sines

Trigonometry and traffic signs — what a clever costume!

Sir-Cumference

Need geometry concepts explained? This knight has you covered! 

He's also the star of a fun children's book series about math.

Infant-ity

Infant-ity explains the concept of infinity so well, even a baby can understand it!

The Numberjack (with his X- and Y-axes)

The Numberjack is prepared to graph on the go with his X and Y axes strapped to his back!

Here's another look at the West Knoxville team in costume, including Sir-Cumference, Miss Calculation, the Verticle Lion, the Numberjack, A Ten Gent, and Doro-Theorem. 

(above images via Mathnasium of West Knoxville)

If YOU dress up in a fun math-related costume this Halloween, please share your photos with us. We'd love to see your math creativity in action! 

We're giving away a $30 Amazon gift card to the best math-related costume we see! One runner-up will receive a $10 Amazon gift card. To enter, either email your costume photo to ilovemath@mathnasium.com, share it with us on Facebook, or Tweet it to @Mathnasium!
Deadline to enter: Monday, November 3rd. Winners will be selected and contacted by November 7th.

Mathnasium's 4th Annual TriMathlon Recap

This past weekend at Mathnasium Learning Centers around the country, elementary school students showed off their math skills and won money for their local schools by competing in our 4th annual TriMathlon.

A free, fun-filled event for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students, the TriMathlon tests a mathlete’s mental fitness with three fun-filled math challenges: The Counting Game, a Magic Squares Challenge and a Mental Math Workout.

We had a wonderful event this year with more than 3,200 participants at 171 centers across the US and Canada. That's a LOT of TriMathletes showing off their math skills!  If you were able to come out to one of our events, we'd like to thank you for joining in our TriMathlon fun, and we hope you had a blast showcasing your math prowess and making new friends! 

Fun for Students!

At Mathnasium, it's always our goal to make math fun and accessible for students, and our TriMathlon offers participants a relaxing, engaging environment to challenge themselves and feel good about giving back to their local community.

From what we've heard from students, they had a great time! Wilson Fisher, a 5th grader who competed in the Johns Creek and South Forsyth TriMathlon said, "The TriMathlon was a great experience and it strained my brain. I look forward to it every year because I get to put my skills to the test...and it's in a fun way!" 

Phoebe Fisher, a 3rd grade participant, chimed in, "I get to show what I know!" 

Aubrey Lee, a 5th grade TriMathlete, was impressed with the challenges. "It is cool that it has three different sections and I like that it is not just like 6+6 or something like that." 

While the challenges certainly were brain-strainers, our TriMathletes were up to the task—three students at the Johns Creek and South Forsyth TriMathlon had perfect scores!

The Mathnasium of Brandon began their event with the Plaza Bella Goes Pink cancer walk, raising over $14,000. TriMathletes got to take a break from competing to check out the 4 Way CountDown, Corn Hole and a photo booth, complete with fun masks! 

According to Center Director Becky Daniels, there were plenty of delicious snacks in between events. "We had Popsicles for the kids after the competition, muffins while they waited and cookies after awards as a reward."

Speaking of sweet treats, Athena Ramirez, Center Director of Mathansium of Clear Lake, recalls a funny conversation prior to the TriMathlon. 

"Here's a conversation I had with one of the 4th graders:

Athena: Niki! You should join the TriMathlon. We have awesome prizes! You get to win a Medal!

Niki: Miss Athena. I'll only join if you guarantee that I get to have candy for TriMathlon!

I thought it was the funniest thing that only candy could get her to go. She did win a medal and her candy, of course."

The Clear Lake TriMathlon instructor team was ready for fun with their students when the event started. 

"We had funny gimmicks—like for the instructor name badges, instead of 'Paul, instructor', we put 'Paul, Algebra Ninja', 'Anne, Calculus Commander', 'Cassandra, Geometry Genius', etc. Our name badges were conversation starters since a bunch of the kids and parents were not Mathnasium Students." 

The Mathnasium A+ mascot got plenty of love during the Clear Lake TriMathlon as well. 

"During the 5 minute breaks in between tests, the A+ would come out. During the first break, Athena, Fraction Fairy, would do some stretches, and the A+ and the kids would follow. During the 2nd break, Paul, Algebra Ninja, had to do 3 Ninja moves. The kids loved it! It was a fun little break before we tweaked their brains again."

Rangu Mandyam, Center Director of Mathnasium Oak Park, got great response from returning participants when it was time to play the Skip Counting Game while the scores were being tabulated.

"They remembered it from previous years, even though we do this just for a few minutes before giving them some other activity, depending on how long it takes the graders to tally the scores before the awards ceremony.

We stand in a circle and I start with '1'. The next person says 'Bzz' or some other word we choose to skip the even numbers.  The third person says '3' and fourth person says 'Bzz'. This seems too easy, but it is very interesting to see how many kids have to think a bit before saying the next number. We then go to skipping multiples of three. If time permits we go to multiples of four."

"For one round the taboo word was "Bzz," for another it was "Pokemon" and for yet another it was "Ghost." I let the kids choose the word to replace the skipped number. I want to be able to go to skipping 6, 7, 8 etc., but we never have time to go that far."

Check out these fun videos of TriMathlon participants playing the Skip Counting Game:

The Mathnasium of East Round Rock also combined math fun with costume fun for their TriMathlon.

Bill Nobles, Center Director of the Mathnasium at St. Petersburg, had enthusiastic response from students, parents and teachers about their local TriMathlon. 

"I think when we started we thought if we could get 10-15 kids in the center for TriMathlon, the event would be a success, since it was our first year. Well, then the enrollments started rolling in. When they got to 30, I thought that was a good number. At 40, I was starting to think it was going to be a very busy day. At 60, I was wondering if we should shut down enrollment, and at 80, I was wondering where everybody would fit!

On the day of the event, we came in early, decorated the center with balloons, had all of our staff on, and nervously wondered how many kids were actually going to show up. As it turns out, we had just under 60 participants, spread almost evenly over the grade levels. Many of the parents, particularly parents of non-Mathnasium students, chose to stay in our waiting area, so we were able to explain the Mathnasium Method and even schedule some assessments as the day went on. We even had two teachers who came just to watch their students and to learn about Mathnasium."

Fun for Parents!

Parents were definitely impressed with the TriMathlon! Two parents at the Mathnasium of Menomonee Falls marveled at how organized their event was, with one parent and their TriMathlete driving over two hours to participate. They enjoyed the competition so much they plan to come back to Mathnasium over the summer for instruction. Another parent told Center Director Anu Deepak that she saw it as "an awesome opportunity for the kids. Her child won the 3rd place and he was so motivated by that and now he wants to do better at the next TriMathlon!"

Swheta Rohit, a parent of a 4th grader at the Mathnasium of North Manchester had this to say about the TriMathlon: "Thank you Mathnasium, kids sure had a good time!" Marney MacFadyen, another North Manchester parent of a 4th grade TriMathlon participant chimed in, "We are thrilled that Chloe was able to participate and we have been busy spreading the word via social media about the program and the TriMathlon." 

Cherie Cason, a parent of two TriMathletes, shared her thoughts on the event: "My 3rd and 5th grader participated in Mathnasium's TriMathlon at the Johns Creek location this past weekend. The instructors at the training facility were very nice, warm and welcoming. It was a great experience for my children."

Cool Prizes!

In addition to flexing their mental math muscles and winning money for their schools, each student walked away with a goody bag and a certificate of participation to show off their achievement. 

The top three scorers in each grade level received additional medals and prizes.

A few TriMathletes showed off their math fitness and their physical fitness on the same day. Martha Gagnon, Center Director of the North Manchester Mathnasium, had two 2nd grade participants who competed in the TriMathlon, then left before the award ceremony for an end-of-season soccer game. Both of them won a medal at the soccer tournament, and while they were there, their parents received an email from Martha saying they were both winners and had won another medal!

The TriMathlon was made possible thanks to generous sponsorship from You Can Do the Rubik's Cube, Lakeshore Learning, Smarties®, and PrintingForLess®.

Tie-Breaker Time!

The TriMathlon isn't over yet! Top scorers will go on to compete in a Tie-Breaker event to be held on October 26-27th. The event will consist of a top secret final challenge, which is on its way to finalist Mathnasium Centers now!

Stay tuned next week on the Number Sense blog for a recap of our TriMathlon Tie-Breaker results! For more fun pictures from our local TriMathlon competitions, check out our Facebook album.

Tell us about YOUR TriMathlon!

Were you a TriMathlon participant or parent? Let us know in the comments here or on Facebook what you thought of your TriMathlon event! 

Have your own fun TriMathlon photos? We'd love to see them! Share them with us on Facebook and/or Twitter using the hashtag #TriMathlon.