Since 2001, the Woodland Math Team has thrived both in their day to day meetings, and through many competitions, which have shaped them into the members they are today.
This Math Team is not like any regular math class. They meet every Thursday after school and work on different problems that the students in class do. These problems are more advanced than regular math classes. A diverse group of students made up of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen have various selections of topics within math, therefore help is never hard to find.
Monica Fryc, the current teacher for Math Team, didn’t start the club but she has given a lot of time and effort making the members the most bright and hardworking they could be. Fryc chose the two current captains, Evan Lynn and Brian O’Connell who plan to make the club the best and most successful that it has been with the activities and competitions they take part in.
“Freshman year we actually left the school to do competitions. We went to eat after, it was so much fun,” O’Connell said.
For the past two years they haven’t been able to participate in competitions outside of school because of COVID-19. While O’Connell is mainly looking forward to out of school activities and competitions, Emma Fabrizi, a senior member on the math team, simply enjoys the feeling of competing.
“The satisfaction of [submitting] them online and then finding out that you got it right on that Google Form and adding up your points like that. Like in the moment you’re just like…I don’t know the math problems. But then after you figure out that you’ve actually done good and you settle down it’s so much fun,” Fabrizi said.
Students know that this club will benefit them in the future through collaboration and communication. Michael Belcher, junior member, believes that the skills he is learning in Math Team will help him in the future, especially teamwork. While in math classes students typically work individually, but the members really work together in the club.
Ethan Valentino, junior member, believes that any math questions in general really improve problem solving and critical thinking skills. Students are applying the math skills they learn in different math classes and then in math club. Joining Math Team also benefits students in their actual math class because you earn extra credit for participating.
Lastly, in this club all of the members work on problems that could be seen on SATS.
“I observed the pattern from the last seven years. I can see the students who are part of the math team for at least two or three years usually do well in the math SATs,” Fryc said.
Some students who participate in Math Team are recognized to be some of the top scorers against other schools that are very high ranked in Connecticut. The Math Team’s competitions and activities have an important role to support Woodland and leave their mark at the competitions.
