The annual D117 Math Fair on Oct. 22 was a hit. Antioch and Lakes Community High School’s Math Honor Society students collaborated to create a variety of math games for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Kids were kept entertained by walking from game to game, using paper to keep track of the points they earned playing different games. Points were used to earn prizes ranging from temporary tattoos to giant stuffed animals and instruments like mini trumpets and ukuleles.
Math Department Chair Megan Troyer plays a huge part in the setup of this amazing event.
¨The math fair is hosted by Mu Alpha Theta, which is our math honor society,¨ Troyer said, ¨All of the students [in Mu Alpha Theta] created groups, and then they create the games.¨
ACHS junior Colin Fisher, a member of Mu Alpha Theta, had his own game with some other students at the math fair.
”I got students involved in my game because it was a two-player marble race, so they were engaged and wanted to win.¨ Fisher said.
Even when the rules were hard to explain, Mu Alpha Theta members stayed patient, coached the younger students, and did their best to explain the games they developed. Each year, the event continues to showcase just how imaginative and inventive D117 students; combining creativity and problem-solving in a way that has come to define the Math Fair.
¨There was a clown game that was probably my favorite because they made a clown face that you had to throw and knock the teeth out, and that had been the most creative that I had seen in a while,” Troyer said. “The students made games ranging from marble races to putt-putt to even life-sized hungry-hungry hippos.”
The math fair had great representation overall, with a total of 65 ACHS students working together to make engaging math games, and 90 elementary students who cleared out the prize table D117 provided.
¨The hardest part was getting the elementary kids to leave,” Troyer said. “They were having so much fun that eventually I had to shut down the games in order to get them to go to the prizes.¨
