IDITA-MATH: Mushing toward proficiency with incentive program

WASILLA — For the second year in a row, more than 100 parents, students and teachers spent the evening at Larson Elementary School playing games and practicing math skills to mark the launch of a month-long Idita-math incentive program.

Principal Annie Bill said the Family Game Night at the school Feb. 1 celebrated math skills and the world famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

She said feedback from the event last year was so positive they decided to do it again. “People loved it.”

Math proficiency requires practice, Bill said, and the incentive program offers students rewards for spending time each evening practicing math skills.

“The whole idea is for them to get better,” she said.

The month-long program began Jan. 31 at an assembly for the whole school where students all received blinking Iditarod pins donated by ExxonMobil, said Bill, who is married to Greg Bill, Iditarod Trail Committee development director.

At the assembly, students watched a video produced for Iditarod Insider about how math and science are intertwined.

Some first-grade students saw themselves in the video from last year when they were in Sara Lamont’s kindergarten class and learning about which materials are the best insulators as part of the Idita-math event last year.

Lamont and Library Media Specialist Wendy Stout also organized this year’s event. And Lamont also helps teachers integrate math into other subjects.

The incentive program works like this: kindergarten and first-grade students are challenged to practice math for 10 minutes each night, second- and third-graders for 15 minutes, and fourth and fifth-graders are challenged to do 20 minutes of nightly math practice.

Classes then calculate their total minutes and if they meet their weekly goals, they advance to one of four checkpoints on the Idita-math trail, Lamont said. Students who meet their individual goals are entered into a drawing for prizes, she said.

“Tie it in with the Iditarod and all of a sudden they are really excited about it,” Lamont said.

That excitement works as a catalyst to encourage students to practice computation skills that they aren’t too keen on, she said. “They don’t even realize they are doing math sometimes.”

For some of the more advanced students, teachers also use math examples related to the Iditarod race, such as figuring out if a musher had 16 dogs and dropped two how many dogs are left?

“There’s tons of math involved in the Iditarod,” Lamont said.

During last year’s event, she said parents told her things like, “My child came home and worked on math for three hours last night.”

The tables in the school’s multi-purpose room were set up last Tuesday evening with a variety of math-related commercial game boards.

“It’s pretty amazing how much math there is in everything,” Lamont said.

Larson Elementary students and siblings Caleb, 8, and Bethany, 9, were at Family Game Night Tuesday with their mother, Jeanette Breding. The three were balancing objects of different weights on a teeter-totter game set up at one table.

Games of all kinds were at other tables, and across the back of the room there were several displays that asked students to practice their estimation skills.

“It’s fun to do estimating to see how close you can get,” Caleb said. “It’s pretty fun here.”

He said he spent 25 minutes the night before practicing math skills to help his classroom reach its goals and advance to the next checkpoint. Bethany said she did 95 minutes of math practice.

Their mom, Jeanette, said the Idita-math program provides a lot of fun ideas for ways parents can practice math skills with their children at home. “They make it very fun for them here.”

Jeff and Alicia Richmond came to Family Game night with their son, Daniel Webb-Richmond, who attends the school, and his younger sister Marie, 2 1/2.

Daniel and his mom ended a Mancala game with a 24-24 tie. Alicia said they picked the game because it’s one of grandma’s favorites.

“It’s fun, let’s go do another one,” Daniel said.

At a table nearby, Trey Greenewald, 9, and Steven Glasen, 9, played a math game with fourth-grade teacher Diane Cook.

Cook said this was her second year as a volunteer at the event for the school’s kindergarten through fifth-grade students and their families.

“It’s a good incentive for kids to practice their computation skills,” Cook said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.