It’s that time of year, Academic Games, Math Counts, and Math 24 are here. Many students are excited for the return of these clubs to Freedom Area Middle School. Some for being able to compete, others for just hanging out and having fun with friends while learning and practicing new or existing skills.
“I like seeing kids going to competitions and realize that they know more than they think they know,” Mrs. Jennifer Glover, Academic Games coach and fifth grade teacher, said. For more than 15 years, Academic Games have been going on at Freedom Area School District. Just last year, Freedom had five people qualify for nationals!
In Academic Games, there are four competitions: Propaganda, Equations, World Events, and Presidents. Propaganda is where you use techniques of persuasion in ads and other things and you try to identify what is said. Equations is math based and you use six different basic operations to solve the answer. World Events are split into two competitions, current events and themes. Current events are where they quiz you on the events of that year and themes are where there is a theme, this year it is History of Rock and Roll and they quiz you on things that happened during this time period. Last year it was the Cold War.
Math 24, a very popular club in our school, just technically started as a club last year, where you go and compete in the game against players from other schools. Although, before that, it was started and run by Mrs. Sara Miller in the math classes. In Math 24, you are given a card with 4 numbers on it. With those four numbers, you can add, subtract, multiply and divide to get the number 24. This club is often mixed up with Math Counts.
Math Counts in our school have been going on for 20 plus years. Currently run by Mrs. Michelle McCanna, practices are now in the morning while last year they were after school. According to Mrs. McCanna, participation has increased each day of the week with it now being in the morning. Plus, this year it is every day of the week rather than one or two days.
“I hope to see an increase in participation in grades 5-8,” Mrs. McCanna, Math Counts, Math 24, and eighth grade math teacher said. MathCounts is very similar to academic games in the way that there are multiple levels of it. In academic games, there are two levels, competitions, and nationals, whereas in Math Counts there are four levels: school, chapter, state, and nationals. In each, it is essentially the same. You go and compete to build up problem solving skills using math. This year, the students will do great in each of these clubs, having fun while learning at the same time.
“[This year] I hope to see lots of kids qualify for nationals,” Mrs. Glover said.
