Math Fair

February 2008

An earthquake the night before the Math Fair started the halls rumbling at Liberty Intermediate School, and the excitement continued all the next day.   A day entirely devoted to math may not be everyone's cup of tea. For the students at Liberty Intermediate School, however, February 27 th turned out to be a day of fun.  

All Liberty Intermediate School students were invited to construct booths for the Math Fair, an exhibition of projects, games, and activities designed to have fun with math. Students worked alone or with partners to create an exciting and interesting activity to teach or practice one of the math skills they had been working on during the first half of the school year.  

The students were given a week to prepare for the big day, much of the work on their own time. When the day arrived, every student in every class was prepared with an activity. The students set up their classrooms so that each Math Fair project was on display and easily accessible.

Some of the time during the day students hosted other students as they tried their activities. At other times the host students did the activities that another class had prepared for them. Fourth-grade classes visited other fourth grades. Fifth-grade classes visited other fifth grades. Students were engaged all day long playing games such as: In the Mode, Prime Time, Martian Checkers, Electric Numbers, and Round Me, If You Can.

When asked what they thought was the best thing about the Math Fair, here's what some of the students said:

A fourth-grader: Some people don't like math. But when they go to the Math Fair, they change their minds.

A fourth-grader: You get to practice your math and just play.