About 75 University of Puget Sound (UPS) football players in uniform shirts will spread throughout Tacoma on Sept. 3 from 3 to 5 p.m. to visit businesses to help middle school students learn how math is used every day in the real world. The players will recruit businesses near seven schools to participate in the October Show Me the Math initiative of the Tacoma Public Schools.
“Show Me the Math is a program through which middle school students learn how businesses use math every day and how relevant their school work is to their future and careers,” said Kate Frazier, school and family liaison in the School, Family and Community Partnership Office and coordinator of the Show Me the Math project. “The UPS football team is paving the path to businesses so that middle school students can feel confident about walking in and asking questions. This is the first year we have gone citywide; we conducted the last two Show Me the Math programs only on the Eastside.”
The UPS football team became involved in Show Me the Math when football player Cory Dunn called Frazier’s office looking for community service opportunities. The football team wanted to do one big kick-off event and the team’s needs meshed perfectly with the help the Show Me the Math project needed to expand citywide.
The UPS players will meet at the seven schools on Sept. 3 with their practice team “pods,” with two pods to a site. The schools in the Show Me the Math project are First Creek, Gray, Hunt, Jason Lee and Stewart middle schools and Park Avenue and Pearl Street alternative sites. The goal is for the football players to find a contact person in businesses for each of the 21 business categories in the Show Me the Math program. The two pods at a school will go in opposite directions to interview and sign up businesses. The 14 pods will compete with each other to enlist the most businesses. The top group will win gift cards to Farrelli’s Pizza.
In late September, the district’s School, Family and Community Partnership Office staff members will deliver posters to participating business so students know which businesses to visit in October. After school during October, middle school students will visit businesses which have signed up for the program and ask “How do you use math here?”
When they make their visits, students will carry a Show Me the Math game book that lists the 21 business categories. They will find the page that corresponds to the type of business they are visiting and work a math problem in the book with a person at that business. For example, if the student goes to a grocery store, he or she will ask the employee how they use math with groceries. The employee will sign his or her name and the business’s name in the game book to verify the student’s work. Frazier said the pages of the game book are perforated so students can pull out a completed page and enter it in weekly drawings at their school.
“We are looking for donations to use in the October weekly drawings at the seven schools in the Show Me the Math project,” said Frazier. Contact her at 253.571.1347 if you would like to contribute incentives for students participating in Show Me the Math or for more information.