The Herald Extra – Barbara Christiansen
“The words “math” and “fun” aren’t often seen together. In fact, many think math and yuck belong in the same sentence. But there is a group of fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade students who are learning to change that viewpoint. Utah Valley University has been putting on its Math Camp for the students. Approximately 40 have been participating in the week-long event. “We created it because we had seen a lot of negative math attitudes,” camp director Roxanne Brinkerhoff said. “We had seen a lot of people coming to us really hating math.” Since bad math attitudes tend to start at relatively early ages, she said the university decided to target the camp to younger students. “We created this camp as a place where they could come and learn about the fun, interesting life applications of math,” she said. “They have this conception that it is all algebra and numbers. “There are some things that are interesting and not algebra heavy. It is interesting for them to see how it impacts our world.” The camp staff chose things that would impact the world and are of interest to the students. One of their projects using math is to launch rockets.”(more)