Announcing the Return of The Math Club
We are excited to announce the in person reboot of The Math Club in Fall 2023!
Approach
Inspired by Joe Quigley’s approach to teaching the joy of mathematical problem solving for kids in grades 4-8, we are offering in person classes for the Fall 2023 to Spring 2024 school year. Keeping Joe’s proven format, classes meet for one and a half hours, combining self-paced exercises, instruction, and interactive learning opportunities. Students have the opportunity to take the elementary and middle school Math Olympiad competitions.
Meeting Times and Location
Classes are hosted at Einstein’s Workshop on weekday afternoons and evenings. Please click here to register. Email mathclub@einsteinsworkshop.com or call 781-202-5645 for more details. If you are a graduate of The Math Club and interested in being a TA, please email mathclub@einsteinsworkshop.com.
Math Club Jr. (Grades 1-3)
Welcome to the secret world of mathematicians! Mathematicians play by asking interesting questions and investigating possible solutions. Think like a mathematician, experiment with ideas, and see what you can discover. Through hands-on activities, explore areas of math not usually taught until college. Visit lands of higher dimensional geometry, tessellations, probability, and topology. From brain-teasers to creative exploration, this class will engage you in the playful side of math. Club meetings start Jan. 2024.
“Work hard. Work smart. Check your answers!” — Joe Quigley.
How This is Different from Other Extracurricular Math Options
The Elementary and Middle School Math Olympiads are a great introduction to the world of math competitions. For non-competitive mathletes, they are a good source of interesting math problems that aren’t typically encountered in school.
Age Ranges
The Math Club is aimed at kids in grades 4-8 because it’s meant to prepare kids for the Elementary and Middle School Math Olympiad contests which are designed for kids in grades 4-8.
Math Club Jr. is aimed at kids in grades 1-3.
Math Club Meeting Times
Math Club (through March 29, 2024)
Thursdays 4-5:30pm (Grades 4-6)
Thursdays 6:30-8pm (Grades 4-8)
Math Club (April 4 – May 30, 2024)
- Thursdays 6-7:40pm (grades 4-8)
Math Club Jr.
- Saturdays 12:30-1:45pm (Grades 1-3)
Math Club Meeting Dates
Math Club has three sessions:
Session 1: September 28 – December 21, 2023
Session 2: January 4 – March 28, 2024
Session 3: April 4 – May 30, 2024
- Math Club will also be offered as a Summer camp.
Math Club Jr. has two sessions:
- January 27 – March 31
- April 6 – June 6
- Math Club Jr. will also be offered as a Summer camp
Cost
Math Club Sessions 1 and 2 each cost $540. Math Club session 3 costs $450.
Math Club Jr. sessions cost $399
Our Approach
Math Club classes follow the time-honored approach that Joe Quigley and The Math Club Lexington used for over twenty-five years. At the start of each class, students receive problem sets containing fifteen problems that span the full range of difficulty from the Elementary Math Olympiad (grades 4-6) and the Middle School Math Olympiad (grades 6-8).
Students spend the first hour exploring the problem sets based on their proclivities–in teams, alone, or in consultation with instructors or teaching assistants.
In the final half hour, each student has the opportunity to present their solution to one or more of the problems. This gives students the opportunity to both teach and learn from each other and also to hone their ability to explain mathematical concepts.
Frequently, instructors take a few minutes to cover a specific topic in more detail. Most of the topics relate directly to a specific category of Math Olympiad problems. A few topics, based on the whimsy of our instructors, will give students novel insights into mathematics or new problem/puzzle solving techniques.
Contest Days
There will be five contest days in which students will have the opportunity to take either or both of the 2023-2034 school year Elementary and Middle School Math Olympiad competitions.
Middle school students will have a chance to practice the AMC8 on competition days after completing their MOEMS Division M contest.
Contest days for the 2023-2024 school year:
- Round 1: Thursday, December 7, 2023
- Round 2: Thursday, January 4, 2024
- Round 3: Thursday, February 1, 2024
- Round 4: Thursday, February 29, 2024
- Round 5: Thursday, March 28, 2024
Contest Practice Days
Each of the five weeks just prior to a contest will have a slightly different format in which students will work on mock contests at both levels with problems taken from prior Math Olympiad contests. Students will have an opportunity to present solutions as usual.
Celebrating Hard Work
At the end of the year, we will have a potluck awards ceremony to celebrate all of the hard work of our budding mathematicians.
About Us
Instructor Dean Chung was a 1991 United States of America Mathematical Olympiad winner, an author of the Daily Epsilon of Mathematics calendar series, and has served as an instructor for Math Olympiad teams for three years. He has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan and an AB in mathematics from Harvard College.
Instructor Aaron Ashish, math ninja, has been an instructor at Einstein’s Workshop for ten years. He has a PhD in mathematics from Duke University and a BS in mathematics from MIT.
TAs are former students of The Math Club Lexington who bring their enthusiasm and prior experience with the Math Olympiad to our students.
Director Rebecca Rapoport, owner of Einstein’s Workshop, a STEAM enrichment center, is the author of Math Lab for Kids, The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Math for Kids, and the Daily Epsilon of Mathematics calendar series. She has degrees in mathematics from Michigan State University and Harvard College.
