Community members brought together through a family math night at College View Academy

Midterms have passed. For many, it is a sigh of relief. Some students experienced midterms for the first time. For the elementary education students, they had the opportunity to help bring a community together through their testing.

On October 7, Lesa Kean -- a professor in the computer science and math program at Union -- held a family math night at College View Academy. This was an event to bring together kids, adults and college students. She brought on Union students to help run the event, including elementary education majors, who hosted the event as their midterm exam. Kean said, “This would be the best way for them to get practical experience and to test how they do in a real situation.”

Everyone came together over math games in efforts to let kids of all ages from kindergarten to eighth grade learn to love math. The kids had a blast. Students such as Jeremiah Jenkins, Morgan Sanders, Kaylin Bogue and Paweh Ser helped and were enthusiastic about the evening event.

The elementary education majors loved helping the kids, but they loved seeing the smiles on their faces even more. Paweh Ser shared, “My favorite part about what I do is being able to help the kids and see the gears turn in their heads as they learn on their own.”

Kean loved putting on the event. She spoke about being able to hold the event even with COVID-19. She said she had focused on the numbers and was able to hold the event in person for everyone to attend. This was the second math night she had held and felt that each time it got better. “I was a bit concerned about the attendance with COVID-19,” she said, “but the truth is that there are more people here than I could have possibly expected.”

Dr. Seth Pierce, who brought his own children to the event, said, “We want to cultivate our kids to do the things that they enjoy and when they told us about the event, they were so excited about it, so we wanted to encourage that excitement.”

Morgan Sanders said, “To the future students who are in elementary education, and this is your midterm, bring your friends together and go over the material. Play the games with them. Have a fun night before the event.” This event brought families, students and kids all to one place to have fun, to learn and to get to know more people within their community. 

By TJ Pittenger