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Community Math Project: ‘We want to make it fun’

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University of Michigan engineering major Meghan McElroy (right) talks about a math chart to students (from left) Charlie Pettis, 13, of Waukegan, Ben Wells, 11, Beth Wells, 13, Esmeralda Zamudio, 12, and math coach David McElroy, all for North Chicago.

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Community Math Project: For more information on math mentoring, contact Valerie DeVost at (847) 693-6398.

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Updated: July 6, 2011 12:21PM



Kids who hate math and some who are downright afraid of the subject are spending Saturday mornings in a hot North Chicago High School gymnasium immersed in an unusual group tutorial dubbed the Community Math Project.

The free class which runs from 10 a.m. to noon through Aug. 6 is led by volunteers who are alarmed at low math grades and achievement scores among North Chicago and Waukegan public school students — particularly students of color.

In North Chicago, math achievement steadily drops off in middle school, according to the latest Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores, until by 11th grade, as measured by the Prairie State Achievement Examination. a shocking 85 percent of students tested fail to meet or exceed state standards in the subject.

In Waukegan, where a reported 85 percent of eighth-graders do acceptable or better work in math, scores dive in high school, with just 38.5 percent meeting state standards by their junior year compared to 73.4 percent across the state.

North Chicago 3rd Ward Ald. Valerie DeVost, who has been working to publicize the program, said she took ISAT scores to a North Chicago School Board meeting in a pitch to borrow space.

“Parents are worried,” DeVost said. “They know their kids need help. This is a community effort to try to give it to them.”

The project uses unconventional methods to help kids visualize abstract math concepts. On Saturday, with the help of University of Michigan engineering major Meghan McElroy, students learned about the x and y axes in geometry by making paper gliders.

They beat out multiples of eight and nine on an African drum. They used their arms to form acute, right, and obtuse angles. In future classes, they will shoot hoops to understand the equation of a line in slope intercept form and to practice figuring percentages.

“A lot of students, and especially minority students, have trouble conceptualizing abstract math concepts,” said Marian McElroy, a North Chicago attorney and a volunteer instructor for the program. “They can’t relate them to anything. If they’re lucky, they can memorize the equations. But if they don’t get it, they fail.”

Asked how she did in math last school year, Esmerelda Zamudio, 12, of North Chicago, answered in one word: “Bad.”

“Just making math more interesting is really key,” said Meghan McElroy, 22, niece to Marian, who grew up in Los Angeles, Calif. “We want to make it fun. It’s all about the experience.”

The project is a volunteer effort for the entire McElroy family. Njoki McElroy, a college professor and Marian’s mother, said her late husband Clennon McElroy, a Tuskegee Airman, tutored his children in basic and higher level math skills.

“He was an excellent teacher because he had a lot of patience,” McElroy said.

But most students can’t rely on math homework help from a pilot or an engineer.

“The problem kids have with math is it’s not connected to the everyday part of their lives,” McElroy said. “If they’re constantly aware that math isn’t something way out there, but always with them, in everything they do and see and hear, it’s no longer alien.”

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