Math Fair allows students to present research into puzzles, concepts, barcodes

Lumi Haas has never thought about barcodes. They’ve just always been there, on everything.

“We use them so much in everyday life and I didn’t even know there was math behind them,” the eighth grader said. “It was a fun experience for all of us to learn.”

That was the spirit behind the projects presented March 11 as Linden Avenue Middle School held its annual Math Fair.

Working in small groups, students in the Math 7 Accelerated and Algebra 1 classes spent a month researching a topic of their choosing, from a lengthy list provided, ranging from logic puzzles and the game of Nim to topology, Pascal’s Triangle and happy numbers.

“They learned about the history, the development and the use of their topic,” math teacher Julianna Loussedes explained. “They were presented with a question and they learned how to answer the question and the techniques behind the question.”

On March 11, they presented their findings to fellow students, staff and family who attended the after-school fair. Each group created a display for their topic and a hands-on activity to illustrate it. The algebra students also were required to create a Powerpoint presentation with some sort of interactive feature they could find online a replicate, like a video or a game.

“It’s fascinating,” Loussedes said. “They do all their work outside of class time and they do a lot of research and present their findings.”

The fair was first created around a decade ago by math teacher Mackenzie Dabo and former math teacher Beth Goldberg.

"It is such an important skill for students to develop," Dabo said, "to discuss their research and speak about their topics."

Gracyn Clements’ group focused on Tangrams, a geometric puzzle game in which shapes of blocks can be arranged to create images.

“We just picked something that was interesting that we would want to learn about,” said Clements, an eighth grade student. “We all like puzzles, they’re fun, and it incorporates history.”

She explained, the game originates in a Chinese story about a sage bringing a piece of glass to a king only to have it break along the way. As an interactive element her group gave visitors black-and-white silhouette images and challenged them to solve the puzzle.

“You have to pick the right shapes to solve it,” she said.

Many of the students enjoyed visiting friends’ booths, many of which gave out little treats to those who played games.

“Everybody I’ve visited today has been fantastic,” Haas said. “Everybody brought their A-game. Their posters are so fun.”

Among her favorites was a booth linking the popular online Wordle game to a predecessor, Mastermind.

When visitors came to the booth, Maci Barry and her groupmates explained the history of Mastermind, “a guessing game with strategy,” and its evolution. They then got a physical game card to play themselves.

“A lot of people have played. We have a lot of adults who have played,” Barry said. As for why their booth was among the more heavily trafficked, she said, “We have a lot of Jolly Ranchers on our board. If you win, you get a Jolly Rancher.”