Elementary Students to Have a Field Day with Math on Nov. 14
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2003
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Elementary Students to Have a Field Day with Math on Nov. 14
Approximately 160 fourth, fifth and sixth graders from Jay Partridge Elementary School will spend the day at California State University, Chico on Friday, Nov. 14, participating in the Mathematics Field Day.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics plans to have such an event each fall and spring semester.
Liberal studies students enrolled in beginning and advanced math for teachers will engage their elementary partners in mathematical activities designed to be enjoyable and to inspire interest in math. Rapti di Silva and Katy Early are organizing the event.
The day begins at 9 a.m. in the Bell Memorial Union with students doing mental math and exploring fraction concepts with pattern blocks and tangrams with their partners from MATH 50A and 50B. In the second session, participants will investigate concepts in probability and geometry with their MATH 50B partners.
During lunch, the young mathematicians will be treated to “Mathletics” by the Math Club.” Mathletics” is Early’s term for getting students moving with activities that have a math slant, such as estimating jumps, then predicting combinations of jumps to reach a goal.
The fifth and sixth graders will participate in a third session with students in MATH 112 and 113 on concepts of algebra and geometry.
“The Mathematics Field Day builds a bridge between the current learning and future career of pre-service teachers. They will learn about children’s mathematics backgrounds and their ways of learning; children will be introduced to new math concepts. The day also enhances the connection between Chico State teaching and local K-12 education,” said Duke Sun, MATH 50B and MATH 112 instructor.
In addition to di Silva and Early, the following CSU, Chico math teachers helped prepare the liberal studies students for the field day: Duke Sun, Maureen Dion, Sanjay Dev, Bill Fisher, Tamsen Herrick, Robin Soloway, Bob Stofa and John Van Veen. The Mangrove Safeway will donate snacks for the day.
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