Mathletes recently competed against York, Willowbrook, and Romeoville for the second meet of the West Suburban Math League on Tuesday, November 18th, where the team score was 175.
Mathletes meets on Mondays with each individual team. The freshmen meet at Morton Freshman Center with Ms. Hosek, sophomores with Mr. Horvath in room 302, juniors with Mr. Volk in room 115, and seniors with Ms. Kane in room 115. The calculator team meets on Fridays with Ms. Kane in room 351. Mathletes has about 40 members. The purpose of Mathletes is to increase one’s knowledge of math, challenge one’s math skills in a competitive environment, and develop collaboration in working on a team. During meetings, students work on problems given in competitions from previous years. Mathletes consists of individual teams of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as an 8-person team, calculator team, 2-person team, and oral team. This year, Mathletes placed 2nd overall in advanced algebra and pre-calculus, Pedro Alvarez placed 1st in advanced algebra, the oral team placed 2nd, and Santiago Zarco placed 4th in pre-calculus.
“Students usually think they have to work alone when working on math, which is why they could find it boring, but Mathletes shows students how to work as a team and collaborate with each other,” said coach Barbara Kane.
In addition to the coach’s perspective, a member also shared their experiences.
“I joined Mathletes as a freshman because a group of my friends urged me to join with them. Now, as a senior, I’ve learned to appreciate the club as a tool that has and will continue to catalyze my application of concepts not only in math, but in my daily life too. The coaches in Mathletes are by far the best teachers I have ever had. They taught me that the best way to go about the subject is to ask why,” said senior Nahir Garcia.
