What is Math Club?
Math Club is a place for like-minded, motivated upper elementary students to come together and experience a fresh, engaging, and challenging approach to math. Before each class, students will be asked to watch a short YouTube math video from a widely respected and beloved math channel such as Numberphile, Stand-up Maths, or Vi Hart. We will be selecting videos that cover an unexpected or intriguing mathematical idea which is challenging but accessible, and turning them into engaging lessons based on our experience running similar enrichment activities in our specialized high school program. During class, we will unpack the video as a group and then students will engage in hands-on activities that reenact, extend, or challenge the video. After each class, students will receive practice exercises to complete and a difficult challenge problem to mull over, to be discussed at the next session.
When?
Math Club is offered at two different times of the week:
Sunday Math Club (FULL - waitlist below)
November 17, 2024 - June 8, 2025: 10:00 - 11:30am every other Sunday (14 classes). Class meeting dates: Nov 17, Dec 1, 15, Jan 12, 26, Feb 9, 23, Mar 9, 30, Apr 13, 27, May 11, 25, Jun 8.
OR
Monday Math Club (starting January 2025)
January 13, 2025 - June 9, 2025: 4:30 - 6:00pm every other Monday (11 classes; register below). Class meeting dates: Jan 13, 27, Feb 10, 24, Mar 10, 31, Apr 14, 28, May 12, 26, Jun 9.
Provided space is available, students can join Math Club at any time throughout the year.
Please note, the Sunday and Monday Math Club options cover the same material each week, just on different days.
Who?
Math Club is designed for students in grades 5-7.
Interested students in Grade 4 or 8 may also be considered; please contact us at camps@visst.ca before registering.
Math Club participants should be meeting or exceeding expectations in math for their grade level, and should be familiar with arithmetic operations, fractions, decimals, negative numbers, and exponents. For example, they should be able to compute the following without a calculator:
5 x (13+4)
½ + ⅓
½ - ⅓
½ ÷ ⅓
0.22 - 0.55
3³
Find the smallest prime number greater than 20
Find the square root of 1,000,000
If you are unsure whether your child is prepared for Math Club, please contact us at camps@visst.ca.
Where?
The Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology (VISST): 1490 West Broadway, Vancouver.
Why should you attend?
Learn something not taught in school: Discover a new side of math beyond just performing calculations and following prescribed steps.
Cultivate curiosity: The goal of Math Club is just as much to pique curiosity about math as it is about learning mathematical content.
Learn from the best: The VISST Math Club curriculum was designed by an award-winning educator who has taught at every level, from elementary to university.
Earn a certificate of completion from the Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology.
Comparison to other programs
Traditional math programs typically focus on building skills and fluency in computation via a more rigorous treatment of the math taught in school. VISST Math Club, on the other hand, explores topics that are typically absent from school math, ranging from number theory (is there a pattern to prime numbers?) to probability (how many times do you need to shuffle a deck of cards so that it looks random?) to geometry (why does a flight from Vancouver to London go up north instead of just east?). Math Club’s goal is to instil a joy of math, cultivate curiosity and train the skill of not only finding the right answers but also asking the right questions. For more information, see also our blog post On pure math in high school which describes a similar initiative implemented in our high school program at VISST.
Teaching Team
Edwin Huras - Instructor
Edwin Huras is a Teaching Assistant at VISST and a UBC student studying mathematics, philosophy and physics. Edwin previously obtained a diploma in Broadcast TV and Film Production, working in science communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and then as a Production Coordinator at CTV News in Kitchener, Ontario. Edwin hopes to one day contribute to academic research in mathematics as well as teach at the high school and university levels.
Mike Gelbart - Curriculum Design
Mike Gelbart is VISST’s Principal and head math teacher. Before starting VISST, Mike was an Associate Professor of Teaching in the UBC Department of Computer Science, where he taught over 25 courses from first-year to graduate level. Mike co-created the UBC Master of Data Science program, where he served as Co-Director from 2018 to 2021. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at UBC. In earlier days, Mike attended K-12 in the Vancouver public school system, and then completed an undergraduate degree in physics at Princeton University and a PhD in machine learning at Harvard University. You can read more about Mike here.
Fees and Registration
Total fees for Sunday Math Club (Nov - Jun) are $770.
Total fees for Monday Math Club (Jan - Jun) are $550.
Additional Notes
Refund policy: To request a refund, email camps@visst.ca. We will refund you for all remaining classes occurring at least 2 weeks after the date of the refund request.
Class/Workshop/Camp Cancellation policy: VISST reserves the right to cancel classes, camps or workshops and refund fees due to low enrolment. In this event, we will provide as much advance notice as possible.
Questions?
Please email camps@visst.ca.