SUPER-M team returns to Moloka'i for weekend of mathematics

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Feb 18, 2011

A UH Manoa graduate student demonstrates one of the activities at the 2010 Moloka‘i Math Day.
A UH Manoa graduate student demonstrates one of the activities at the 2010 Moloka‘i Math Day.
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa mathematics and engineering students, faculty and staff, in collaboration with the Native Hawaiian Science and Engineering Mentorship program and San Francisco State University, will team up on Friday and Saturday, February 25-26, with Moloka‘i High and Aka’ula Middle School to teach math to  K-12 students and their families.
 
Moloka‘i Math Day, which is open to the public, will be held at the Mitchell Pauole Center in Kaunakakai on Saturday, February 26, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. High school activities will be held from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., and middle and elementary school activities will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. No advance registration is necessary.
 
The second annual event is designed to continue efforts started at last year’s event to illustrate the importance of math and provide educational opportunities to students at all levels. The goal is to encourage their continuation of studies in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
 
This year, several levels of mentorship play a key role in Moloka‘i Math Day. Beginning on Friday, February 25, about 10 UH Mānoa graduate students and a team of undergraduate engineering students will mentor the Moloka‘i High students. In turn, on Saturday, February 26, these students will conduct fun, hands-on discovery station activities for the middle school students.  Finally, the middle school students will engage with students from various elementary schools on Moloka‘i.
 
Participants can tinker with robots, create and decipher codes, build pictures using tangram puzzles, play with a deck of cards to build their math skills, learn about polyhedrons, or work their way through a laser maze.
 
The event is part of UH Mānoa’s School and University Partnership for Educational Renewal in Mathematics (SUPER-M), a $2.8 million program funded by the National Science Foundation and developed in the UH Mānoa Department of Mathematics.  Moloka‘i Math Day is sponsored by a grant from the Maui Economic Development Board - Ke Akahele Education Fund. 

To track the SUPER-M, visit http://www2.math.hawaii.edu/superm/. For more information, contact Linda Veneciano at (808) 956-4669 or lindahv@math.hawaii.edu.