A. MATHEMATICS CLUBS Mathematics clubs among students in colleges and high schools have proved their worth. Nearly all of the progressive schools of these grades number such organizations among their student activities. It was the author's privilege to organize and direct a mathematics club among the boys of grades ten to twelve in the high school in which she formerly taught mathematics. Three years ago, she suggested, as an experiment, the organization of a similar club in one of the junior high schools of Columbus. Under the direction of a mathematics teacher, the first club of ninth grade pupils has become the Alpha Chapter of the original Euclidean Club, for the Beta and Gamma Chapters have been organized in the eighth and seventh grades respectively. The purpose of a mathematics club is to promote interest in the study of mathematics, to give the pupils glimpses of the future, which serve as incentives to continue the study, and to furnish an outlet for their social instincts. Stories from the history of mathematics, magic squares and circles, mathematical fallacies, and other recreations furnish interesting material for club programs. The topics may be the same for clubs in the several grades but the treatment will be different in each. To show this difference a program for each grade in the same topic is given: 2. How to Make Magic Squares (with an odd number of sides). 3. How to Make Magic Circles. II. Eighth Grade. 1. How to Make a Magic Square (with odd number of sides). 2. How to Make a Magic Circle. 3. Some Interesting Facts about Magic Squares. III. Seventh Grade. 1. A Magic Square, 3 numbers on a side. 3. A Magic Square, 7 numbers on a side. These sample programs for the ninth grade may be suggestive: I. 1. Euclid. 2. Some Interesting Things about a Billion. (White.) II. 3. How to Write 100 in Several Ways. (T. C. Record, November, 1912.) 4. Some Questions. (Original by pupil.) 1. Familiar Trick with Dice. (White.) 2. Mathematical Advice to a Building Committee. (White.) 3. Puzzle of the Camels. (White.) 4. Pythagoras. III. 1. Multiplication on Fingers. 2. Russian Multiplication (only table of 2's need be known). (School Science and Mathematics, April, 1919.) 3. Ship Carpenter's Puzzle. (White.- Presented one meeting. Solution given the next.) 4. Story of Flatland (told by a pupil). 7. Poem: A Young Lady and Her Lover. (Jones.) 8. Some Interesting Questions. (Jones.) 9. Remarkable Numbers. (Teachers' College Record, November, 1912, or Jones.) 10. Trisecting an Angle. 11. Duplicating the Cube. 12. Squaring the Circle. 13. Fourth Dimension. 14. Mathematical Symbolism. 15. The Golden Section. (May, 1918, of American Mathematical Monthly.) 16. Proofs of Pythagorean Theorem. (Monograph D. C. Heath & Co.) 17. Use of Mathematics in Science 18. History of Arithmetic. 19. History of Algebra. 20. What is a Straight Line? 21. Computing Machines. 22. History of Pi. 23. The Algebra of Al-Khowarizmi. 24. Hindu-Arabic Numerals. 25. Paper Folding. 26. Fallacies of Arithmetic. 27. Opportunities Open to Students of Mathematics. (March, 1918, of 29. Game of "Nim." (March, 1918, of A. M. M.) |