Operation: MATH! Middle School Family Night
Ninety Middle School students and their parents participated in a fun evening of hands-on math activities during the first Operation: MATH! family night on Thursday, September 15.
The goals of the evening were to have fun with math; encourage a growth mindset; develop strong number sense and logical thinking; build student confidence; include parents in the math program; and to help students, parents, and teachers connect. Students, families and friends enjoyed the estimation candy jar, magic triangle puzzles, 31-derful card puzzle, raffle, and dessert baked by seventh and eighth-grade volunteers.
Middle School Math Department Chair and teacher Amy Rohrbach '97 designed Operation: MATH! during graduate school at Santa Clara University. After researching gender differences among students in Middle School, Ms. Rohrbach wanted to create a platform to build girls’ confidence that so often drops in Middle School. She designed the program to build both girls’ and boys’ confidence by creating strong math communities that bond students, parents and teachers.
While Ms. Rohrbach designed the activities, the other Middle School math teachers joined in the fun and volunteered at the event. Open to all Middle School families, Operation: MATH! will be offered two more times this school year: Thursday, January 12 and Thursday, April 13.
The responses from the question,“What did your family gain from coming tonight?” showcases the excitement of the evening:
While Ms. Rohrbach designed the activities, the other Middle School math teachers joined in the fun and volunteered at the event. Open to all Middle School families, Operation: MATH! will be offered two more times this school year: Thursday, January 12 and Thursday, April 13.
The responses from the question,“What did your family gain from coming tonight?” showcases the excitement of the evening:
- “It was fun to compete against our parents!”
- “We learned math strategies and techniques for solving puzzles.”
- “We figured out that we could work well together.”
- “It was a nice social event that makes us think too!”
- “Fun time with friends and family…while doing math!”
- “Laughter, new friends, and cookies!”
- “It was fun working together and interesting to see my kids strategize.”
- “We loved working in a group with other families.”
- “Math is fun and there are lots of different ways to get the answer.”
