The rules are very simple. The teacher or facilitator puts down a card with four numbers on it, and the game players – students of Clarendon school – have to add, subtract, divide or multiply them and come up with the number 24.
What’s not simple is they have only 20 seconds to do it, and they have to do all the calculations in their heads. Students coming up with a right answer get a point, and if they accumulate another point, they move on to the next phase of the game.
The first round of the series encompassed 15 games, a break, and then competition again by the top scorers.
“Before I became principal, I was a mathematics teacher,” said Clarendon Principal Ralph Merlo. “This was one of my favorite pastimes.”
In teaching mathematics, Merlo said, teachers must find a way to make it relevant to the students.
“Math can be a lot of fun,” he said. “But math has significance beyond numbers. It has to do with developing problem-solving skills.”
According to teacher Linda Wilhelm, the game was invented by a man named Robert Sun who wanted to show the relationships between numbers through games.
Since 1988, the game has been used in over 500,000 classrooms throughout the United States “Robert Sun was not good at mathematics,” Wilhelm said. “But he believed that if you gave the answer, you could work out the problem.”
“No one is allowed to shout out his or her answer,” Wilhelm said.
Although the game is slated for students from grades 1 to 9, on this day in late April, it was the sixth graders who stared with great intensity over the small board, waiting for the card to be exposed.
Teacher Karen Bonin said the game made mathematics more fun for the students, allowing them to learn more easily.
Bonin and Wilhelm said school champions used to go to statewide competitions at the Rutgers University in the past, but that the program seemed to have been dropped in recent years.
Two students at one table, Jenna Totaro and Danny Spiegel, admitted that the game was tough, although seemed to like playing it. Another student, Ryan Shea, got points for his quick wits.
“I’m good at math,” he said, claiming he either wants to grow up to become a scientist or an actor.
Eddie Vorobeychic said he was good at mathematics, as well, and had received points for each of his two answers as well. Marilynn Arnhols also admitted the game was tough.
“I enjoy the game,” said Ashleigh McAdam, a student at another table. “It just proves that learning can be a lot of fun.”