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Mathlete coaches teach students on cracking equations for success

March 13, 2012

Mathlete coaches teach students on cracking the equation for success, and math!

By Joel Zylstra

On Tuesday, March 13, about 100 PLU students, local middle schoolers, parents and math teachers gathered in the UC Scan Center for Family Math Night to showcase their commitment to Math. PLU’s Mathlete Coaching Project, now in its eighth year, exists to create a community around mathematics from elementary school to college.

The annual event honored elementary and middle schoolers from four schools across the region, their families and 13 PLU Mathlete student coaches, stemming from a variety of academic disciplines. A short program acknowledged the elementary middle school Mathletes and their PLU Mathlete coaches. Student Mathletes had the opportunity to share poster presentations around a variety of complex math problems and learn more

mathlete students

about the Washington State Math Olympiad, scheduled to take place on May 5 at Thompson Elementary School.

Mathletes, originally founded by PLU Math Professors Bryan and Celine Dorner has served over a thousand kids from more than ten schools over the past eight years. The program exists to highlight the importance of math despite a bleak outlook cast by attention to test scores state and nationwide. Currently, approximately half of the 13 Mathlete coaches have declared math as their major. Other students represent a variety of majors including education, psychology and social work. The program is also supported by the leadership of Math faculty Ksenija Simic-Muller and Daniel Heath.