Not Sure About This: 2+2=4? Join Math Club

With the inception of a new school year, AISG has once again brought an array of new activities and clubs into the fold. Amongst these new clubs and activities are Math Club, which is co-led by Benjamin Lu (Grade 11) and Daniel Park (Grade 11) and takes place every Wednesday during lunch. The math club currently has 10 members. With the number of math competitions and participants increasing each school year, it came with great necessity that a group be formed to instruct students about the best possible way to tackle these arithmetic challenges. As commented by Park, “math club provides the opportunity to explore various branches of mathematics that are not taught in school.”

Several of the problems in competitions such as the AMC (American Math Competition), Waterloo Math Contest and Purple Comet require students to go beyond the regular applications of mathematics and explore the numerous uses of various math operations such as differentiation, integration, matrices, etc. As mentioned by Daniel P, the “primary objective of math club is to prepare students for competitions” as the school curriculum does not cover the some of the topics that are part of these math contests. Besides developing student’s mathematical skills specifically for these competitions, Daniel P commented that the club was also formed with the intent of “preparing students for their future scientific and mathematical endeavours.” In other words, the math club wishes to cultivate skills that will be needed for students who will pursue a career of math or science in the future.

As mentioned by Daniel P, students are normally given a worksheet to work through during the duration of the meeting. During this time, the math club coordinators will explain periodically explain the solutions to these problems. Some meetings are also occasionally lectures, in which coordinators will instruct students about certain arithmetic concepts. Daniel P states that “these meetings are extremely beneficial for students as it not only helps students get better scores in math competitions but also build logic and collaboration skills.”

Daniel P guarantees that “as long as math club participants complete their assignments on time, they will notice a significant increase in their math competition score.” He also claims that students should come to math club with a “positive and enthusiastic mindset,” and actively “invites any students with an interest in math” to come and join the club. Daniel P consistently enforces the fact that “math is an essential part of one’s academics as it is the gateway to success in other subjects, such as physics, economics and computer science. If students are interested in improving their math contest scores, or simply have a genuine interest in math, they are highly suggested to join math club.

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