Looking up at the screen at Harper Community College, sophomore Amogh Jadala was anxious to find out if he would qualify for state. Suddenly, they saw that they had gotten third place. They were going to state.
“[Honestly] I was pretty shocked, … [when] they called our name for the top three spot, … we were all really excited, … it was a really exciting [moment] for us,” Jadala explained.
Prospect used to have a math team but they removed the team five years ago. The Math Team competes in academic competitions where students from various grade levels and high schools all across the nation take tests. The students who can answer the most questions correctly will win the competition. These tests consist of five questions which the students have thirty minutes to complete, each grade has a different category for tests. There are multiple different groupings for these tests. There are solo, duo, and eight person events. Jadala is on an eight person team with freshmen and sophomores that will be going to state on April 26th.
Geometry teacher Kaitlin Rafalzik is a coach for the Math team with Anna Pugwko, Dominique Hernandez, and James Wills. She enjoys working with this group of teachers, believing that they have good camaraderie.
In order to prepare for state the team Rafalzik pulled some old tests for the team to work on at home. She is also trying to teach them how to communicate to most effectively get the equations completed.
This is her first year working at Prospect, when she was getting interviewed one of the questions she was asked was if she was willing to help coach the math team. She has greatly enjoyed her time on the team and enjoys the group of kids she gets to coach.
“We have a really fun group of kids, and they’re really dedicated, … we just have a really fun environment,” Rafalzik said.
After having the first year on the team they realized their are things that they would like to implement for next year, such as having captains and finding opportunities to grow closer together. Despite not having specific activities for bonding they feel that the team has great connection.
I feel like these math team meetings that we have every Monday are bonding in itself. [Having to work together with your teammates in competition] brings everybody closer, because it kind of establishes trust within everybody …each meeting we get more and more comfortable with each other. And I feel like that’s kind of how we grow as a team.” Jadala explained.
Sophomore River Newsted wasn’t able to go to regionals due to a conflict with the orchestra. However, even though he wasn’t able to participate this didn’t limit how he felt for his teammates.
“I felt so excited and proud of my teammates for qualifying for state in our first year as a math team,” Newsted said.
Rafalzik loves math so getting to find a new way to showcase this to her students is something she is grateful for.
“My favorite part is getting to stretch my brain and getting to look at problems that I probably wouldn’t look at it on a day to day basis, based off of what I teach, and getting to help other students explore their passion for math and learn new things that they also wouldn’t learn in their classes,” Rafalzik.
