Expanding Interests: Juniors Anna Ravis and Mae Bledsoe have started an after-school math club to encourage students to have fun while learning math

“Time for a super cool activity!”

Juniors and Math Club co-presidents Anna Ravis and Mae Bledsoe said as they motioned to a classroom TV behind them, listing 84 points on a graph, with directions on plotting them to create a Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween.

“Whoever makes the best graph gets a prize.”

15 math club members raced to collect their graph paper and colored pencils.

After a half hour of plotting points and coloring the competition came down to two students, juniors Ingrid Blacketer and Mallory Wilkerson. A close vote deemed Blacketer as the winner of the Jack-O-Lantern graph competition and she was awarded an orange Halloween-themed spider web cupcake. 

The recently created Math Club aims to enable students to have fun while doing math. The club had their first meeting on Monday, Oct. 30 and plans to meet every Monday after school at 2:45 p.m. in room 415. Meetings consist of challenging yet rewarding math problems, having fun with friends and snacks. 

“I think when people think math is boring they only see the school side of it,” Bledsoe said. “We are trying to just share [real-world math] with others and make it more fun, less serious.”

The inspiration behind the club came from Ravis’ interest in being a math aid. At East, a math aid gets pulled out of one of their classes and serves as a student teacher for lower-level math classes. Unfortunately, Ravis’ school schedule didn’t allow her the time to be a math aid so as a result, she and Bledsoe started the club. 

“There’s a bit of a stereotype that if you like math, you’re a nerd,” Ravis said. “[With the club] we’re trying to debunk those stereotypes.”

East already has one math club that meets during seminar used for tutoring, but Ravis wanted to make a club for students who enjoy the concept of math along with expanding their knowledge of it. The club would solve challenging problems involving real-world situations like real-world statistics and calculating bank investment growth. Ravis is also in the IB diploma program and wanted to make the club inclusive for other IB students taking Theory of Knowledge during seminar.

“We hope to get more students interested and excited about math and provide people with the opportunity to broaden their mathematical abilities,” Ravis said. 

Ravis then needed a co-president for her club and asked Bledsoe. Once Bledsoe agreed, they started on a pitch to get math teacher Chris Burrows as their sponsor. They started creating a PowerPoint of why Burrows should sponsor the club and their goal to inspire students.

“They came jumping into my room, all excited with this idea that they wanted to start a math club,” Burrows said, “They wanted some fun, difficult math problems and I have just all sorts of problems that they can dig through.”

They introduced the club to Burrows’ Calculus BC class and began to spread the word. Once they gathered more interest, they formed a board consisting of a secretary, Junior Clara Peters, vice president, Junior Nathan Dainels and even a head of snacks committee, Junior JP Nolan.

To stay updated on the club you can join their GroupMe and follow their Instagram account @therealsmemathclub for further updates and information.