Aydin Arik

Hello, I am Aydin Z. Arik. This year, I am a junior at Sage Hill School. back in middle school, I went to this math competition. I loved competing and solving the problems we were given, and I had a great respect for the students who helped host it and I wished to be like them one day. My peers and I solving problems together also really bonded and had a great time together. I want to bring the same joy, sense of community, and challenge I experienced as a middle schooler to current middle schoolers.

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Today in Service Learning, we divided into groups so that we each had one to two things we were doing, such as making assessments in different categories, making the blog post for the group, making and sending registration emails, forms, and save the date flyers to middle schools, looking for sponsorships from companies, and making an announcement for Town Meeting. I chose to make geometry assessments for the kids with Jordan Lopez, to make the save the date flyer with Emin Torlic and Jeffrey Ray Xu, and to make the Town Meeting powerpoint presentation with Jeffrey Ray Xu.

My brave and courageous compatriot, Emin Torlic and I went up to the front of the dimly lit classroom to attempt to solve the contents of the Math Showdown group’s presentation. We were shaking in our boots at the thought of the intense and ferocious math problems awaiting us beyond the first slide. We sat down and stole a glance at our supplies that we will have along with us for the rest of our journey. Then in a flash the problem was ominously staring into our eyes, challenging us to solve it. And without a moment to spare we were off. Expo markers zooming back and forth across whiteboards as our brains told it what numbers were coming. Then suddenly I got it. My arm is thrust up into the air before I know it, and the answer pounced out of my mouth like a jaguar onto his pray. Correct, I hear. A sigh of relief escapes me, but just then I look over at my fellow Emin’s whiteboard seeing all his work, fruitless, making me realize the crime I have committed against him. I suck it up and accept the reality that this game is strike or be struck. We were all in, and the only way out is through the other fifteen slides of the powerpoint…

This activity stuck out to me and I enjoyed it. I like math, so I enjoyed doing math with my friend(though my story suggests otherwise). We both had to accept that we may be beaten by one another in it. Sometimes we would work together and whoever had the most work done, the other would let them have the answer. I learned that though I know the math I m currently studying I should review the math I have finished. We both did a good job of communicating and collaborating on the test together even though it was supposed to be individual.

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11/15/17
Today, my partner Jordan and I spent the majority of the day making a Geometry test for Math Field Day. We came up with eight problems, four each. I made some really intense problems for our middle school  visitors in the spring. I remembered back to when i was in eighth grade and on one of my Geometry test I had to calculate the circumference of the Earth, and I loved and hated that problem because it was fun yet really challenging, so we decided to give them that problem too. Our group also helped each other out by taking each others' tests to make sure the problems are feasible and not too challenging for our visitors. Everyone here now understands at least a little bit of what teachers have to endure when they make a test to give to students. I had to go over my own work several times before giving it to my peers to review, teaching me to be thorough. I could improve my communication with others next time by asking everyone for their input on what they think about my test.
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1/10/17

Today for the Math Field Day Service Learning group, we focused on finalizing the engineering challenge and on picking the schools we are inviting. The two people who were in charge of the engineering challenge got all the supplies they needed to have the rest of us test it, then when they finished the logistics and rules of the challenge we all attempted it. All boats were able to make it across the pool without much difficulty, but when we started to add weights, the boats all sank, and the weights fell to the bottom of the pool. It took us a long time to pick up the weights from the bottom of the pool. We also took a lot of time finding schools to contact and finding the contact information for the people there. 

Today, Jeffrey Xu and I also spent a good amount of time trying to find an adult who is lifeguard certified to help us out on the real math field day with monitoring the kids and in case of emergency they could help u out. We acquired a list from Coach Cid, and then we went around looking for teachers, and in the end coach Connolly agreed to help us out on the math field day in April. I also looked up schools to invite to Math field day, and I called my old elementary school, which recently added a middle school, so that they could join us on that day. At the end of the day for testing the engineering challenge, Jeff, Emin, Jordan, and I made a boat. We made a beautifully constructed boat with cups keeping our boards of cardboard afloat. It was fun.