“Interested in math? Come check out Lightning Mathematics after school every Wednesday in mobile four!” Maybe you’ve heard something along these lines during announcements in the past couple of weeks. While this club sounds interesting, what is Lightning Mathematics?
Through an interview with a sponsor of the club, Mr. Cianfrance, it was revealed that this new club is a student-led hub of learning and problem-solving fit for anyone. This club is so special because the idea for it came from a group of students who wanted to create a place to explore math in various forms. This means that their goals and activities take into account the student’s interests and passions in order to make the club well worth the participant’s time. This mindset has been passed over to the sponsors as well as they focus their efforts on supporting the student’s goals and ideas rather than dictating the efforts of the club as seen in other clubs.
The original goal of this club was to build a community of math lovers where people could explore the areas of math that they are interested in. Due to this, the activities include participating in math competitions, solving perplexing math problems, and even coming up with their own math problems. This makes the club a perfect place for anyone with a passion for math in any form because it allows students to fan their interest into a bursting flame.
While this club is a place for math lovers, a huge part of its target audience is people who are struggling with math and want help understanding it. The participants and sponsors of this club understand how frustrating and complicated it can be for a student to learn math concepts, so they wanted to use their expertise as a tool for students to reach out for help. This offer is so useful because the club is filled with people who understand math and are completely willing to offer tutoring to those who want it. Therefore, any struggling student can come for help with math, physics, and chemistry without the stigma of being a nuisance. While this is a great opportunity, members of the club understand that the preface of this club can be off-putting to those searching for help, so it encourages everyone to attend the club and then decide if it is something that they are interested in being a part of.
Unlike other clubs, this club has no pre-set expectations for its members, instead offering them freedom to do with what they choose. They want students to put in as much effort as is needed to achieve the goals that they choose. This is because the club just wants its members to have fun and learn about math. This component comes from the sponsors as well because they love math and want to help grow interest in it among Legacy’s student body.
Therefore, to any student thinking about participating in this club, Mr. Cianfrance says, “Come check it out!” It is always useful for someone to try something new and then see if it works well for them, so try out the new club Lightning Mathematics!
