One of the more enjoyable things about my teaching is my sponsorship of an active Math Club and competitions, both in school and out of school. The greatest experiences associated with these activities are not the winning or high placing of students, although those are always fun and exciting. Rather, the greatest benefit is having students work and help each other while learning to problem solve. The excitement that a student feels after learning a clever way of solving a problem or helping another experience this is to me what it is all about.
Our Math Club at Chapel Hill High School meets on Tuesday evenings each week from September through May from 7:30 to about 9:15. All students of Algebra II or above are invited to attend, regardless of their ability or interest in competition. The invitation states that the Math Club is for three types of students: 1) those who are interested in competitions, 2) those who wish to improve their math scores for free (we have had some students improve their math SAT score by 200 points!), but mostly 3) those who enjoy mathematics (don't we all?!) and like to associate with a group of the most outstanding students in the school. I am particularly pleased with individual outcomes of Math Club members: the lonely new student to the school who met other academic students and who became one of the most admired and well known students because of his accomplishments, the student who was not outstanding in class when she joined but scored very high on SAT scores after regularly attending for over a year and even placed in a regional contest, and the extremely shy student who learned to interact with other students in our group work and ended up with a core of good friends by the end of the year.
Regular meetings at our school, which are held about three or four weeks per month, consist of warmup problems for 35-40 minutes and difficult problems solved in groups for 50-55 minutes. The warmups are typical problems learned in class, most of which are taken from a previous year's regional contests. These are done individually and solutions are handed out after 30 minutes and some problems discussed. The groups are determined randomly each week so that students work with a variety of other students over the year. They are given out one at a time, with instructions for experienced students to give other students a chance to work the problem and then lead them to a solution, not just give the answer. Instructions to the less experienced students are to be sure they completely understand the problem before the group proceeds to the next problem. At the end of this session there is a "valuable award," usually a candy bar for each person, for the group that has done this the best - not worked the fastest or gotten the most right, but whose members work together the best.
Once a month, there is a different type of meeting. Sometimes we have a speaker, often a former Math Club member who is now working on an interesting problem. Other times we have games or practice competitions for contests coming up. Students look forward to these special meetings a great deal and let me know if I ever forget one. Other special yearly meetings are Alumni Night, the first meeting in January at which 5-20 former Math Club members come and compete with current members, and an end of the year cookout and award ceremony at my house at the end of the year.
Our district has recently gotten a second high school, East Chapel Hill High School. Last year, we invited students from East and their sponsors to attend our meetings and work together. This has proven to be a great benefit to each club, and it is great to have the schools get together on a non-competitive basis. Another exciting addition to our club has been the help of two former Math Club members who are now at nearby universities, Jonathan Woodward and Jeff Mermin. They have regularly attended our meetings and worked with the students, including helping them to prepare for the American Invitational Math Exam and the U. S. Mathematical Olympiad.
All of this had its beginning in 1979-80, when a student of mine asked if I would help him form a math club. At first meeting monthly and then, at the request of students, weekly, the Chapel Hill Math Club has grown into one of the most active and popular clubs at our school. (Some students are suggesting meeting bi-weekly, but I put my foot down at once a week!) So if any of you students out there are at a school that does not have an active Math Club, you see what some effort by you can lead to.
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