La Conner Math Night covers all the angles

Math Night at La Conner Schools was sum-thing special.

Sixth graders through high school seniors showed their “mathological sides” – which often and fittingly took the shapes of triangles and rectangles – during a first-ever local prime time celebration of numbers and variables at the La Conner Middle School gymnasium Tuesday night.

“The thing I loved about it,” said La Conner Middle and High School Principal Todd Torgeson, “is the students got to take the math they’ve learned in the classroom and apply it. It was also neat that it was the kids who explained the exhibits.”

Torgeson was among a large group of adult participants who tried their hands at launching gummy bears from model catapults (projectile motion), shooting free throws (percentages), and guiding a remote control car (particle motion).

That’s not all.

La Conner High senior Gabriel Mancuso and sophomore Will Southard gave Math Night-goers turns operating small robotic vehicles. Meanwhile, a group of students literally sang the praises of trigonometry identities, offering a clever vocal set to the tune of Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart.”

It was all definitely music to the ears of lead La Conner Middle and High School math teacher Rachel Grzech.

Grzeck was introduced to Math Night – a concept akin to the more well-known school science and history fairs – when she previously taught in Virginia. It went over well there, and she felt it could work in La Conner as well.

“I thought we could give it a try here,” she said, “so I brought it up in the fall.”

The reception was positive, to borrow a term. Staff and students have been planning and talking about Math Night ever since.

The hope was to schedule the inaugural La Conner Math Night on March 14 (3.14) to coincide with Pi Day. But schedule conflicts got in the way. So Math Night was instead slotted two nights earlier to help build momentum heading into Pi Day.

“After all,” said Grzeck, “it’s our one time of the year to celebrate.”

And celebrate they did.

“It’s a great way to connect with everyone of all ages,” Grzeck explained, “Especially in bridging the gap with those parents who might not have had a great experience with math when they were in school.”

One of the more popular activities for students and adults alike involved making shapes with strings, a three-dimensional activity that relied on team-building.

“You can’t do it,” stressed Grzeck, “without teamwork.”

La Conner High senior Arlo Liddell enjoyed his shift maneuvering the remote control car and explaining the nuances of particle motion.

“It’s one of the more easy concepts to visualize,” he insisted, then made a couple passing references to Isaac Newton.

An adult standing nearby offered a ready translation for those who are math-challenged.

“It means,” she said, drawing instant laughter, “that he gets to play with a remote control car.”

La Conner seventh grader Calli Dougliss, like Liddell, was able to explain her exhibit in detail without benefit of notes. Her task was to describe how to convert decimals to percentages and then compare and analyze trends based on those percentages.

“The great thing about Math Night,” said La Conner Middle and High School Counselor Lori Buher, “is it brings out all the secondary students, from sixth grade on up, and their parents.

great creativity with what they’ve learned in class.”

La Conner Middle School math teacher Scott Novak and student teacher Robert Rygg lauded how well their sixth grade students used a scale weighed with hand-placed Jolly Rancher candies to demonstrate how to balance equations.

Balancing equations, back in the day, was a sweet skill but not one with which all students tasted success. The La Conner sixth graders proved it can be within anyone’s grasp.

“Their creativity is great,” said Rygg. “Tonight isn’t really what you’d expect with math. There’s definitely not a bunch of worksheets here.”