BROCKTON--Twenty North Middle School math students in Brockton set the pace for holiday giving in December, earning the top spot in a national giving contest that not only rewards work, but teaches and improves math skills.
Students in Pam Senier's math class donated 52,000 virtual points they earned solving differentiated math problems through Apangea Learning's online math instruction program.
The students bested more than 3,000 other classes and 100,000 students nationwide.
"I'm very proud of them, they worked very hard. For our small class to be number one in the nation is impressive, and when you do the math on this, you figure they did the equivalent of 100 hours of math work," North Middle School Principal Sean Ahern in a prepared statement. "That's a lot of practice and problem solving, much of which was done on their own time and at home," Ahern said.
During the month-long "Time for Giving Contest," students worked on math programs both in class and at-home, racking up the points while perfecting their math skills. Through the program, students earn points for every math problem they solve correctly.
Points can then be traded in for gift cards or other prizes.
For every 1,000 points a student earned, Apangea donated one dollar to a cause the student designated, groups like Boys and Girls Club of America, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Wounded Warrior, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother Big Sister and Special Olympics.
Mrs. Senier's class donated 52,000 points, the most points of any class in the nation.
For its first prize ranking, the class was able to choose one charity--the Wounded Warrior Project-- to which Apangea donated another $50.
Apangea representatives then threw students a pizza party to celebrate their win.
Anthony Rosa earned 11,000 points – the most of any student. The 12-year-old said Mrs.Senier and the Apangea program have awakened a new love of math in him.
"It's my new favorite subject," Rosa said, shrugging. Giving away his points was not a big deal, Rosa added. "I wanted to give them away to help people."
Tiana Brooks said the contest propelled her to do more math problems, too.
"I had confidence we would win because everybody was working hard and donating. When I heard about the contest, I said 'let me donate as much as I have,' because I wanted to help people who really need the help," Brooks said.
The contest is a great motivator for students, but it's the problem solving that is driving student success rates higher, Ahern and Senier said.
Since it was introduced at North Middle School last year, the Apangea program has helped increase student achievement growth by as much as 50 percent on the MCAS test. The 52,000 points the students earned is equivalent to roughly 100 hours students were logged into Apangea – a sure sign, officials said, that kids are excited about the program and willing to learn.
"The students love it. They run to class. I think the competitions and the opportunity to win prizes is a big factor in what gets kids logging on to Apangea – especially outside of school," Ahern said. "Whatever the reason, the data is telling us its working ...some eighth graders have doubled their math scores on the multiple choice part of the MCAS test," he said.
The results wouldn't be so tremendous without Senier, Ahern noted. A huge part of the success of the program at North is how her message resonates with students.
"She's awesome. She's here before anybody else in the morning, and there are always kids lined up to talk to her. They love her," Ahern said. "She's matter-of-fact and non-judgmental. The message she sends is that they can do it if they try hard, and she's not going to give up on them even if they give up on themselves," he said.
A former computer programmer who left her field to become a math teacher five years ago, Mrs. Senier credits the students and the program before taking kudos for herself.
"I think Apangea is a very good program for them because it helps them to take apart problems step-by-step, and then rewards them for good work. These kids are trying, they're learning and they're not giving up when they struggle. That's important," she said.
"A lot of the students do (Apangea problems) at home, and that's what we want – we want them to want to do math on their own," she said.
The Apangea program is also in use at Brockton High School and West Middle School, and will expand to East Middle School in the coming months.
Last year, Brockton High School was awarded the Apangea Math "March Math Madness" Tournament trophy.
Apangea Learning (www.apangealearning.com) is a pioneer in developing differentiated distance learning supported by live, certified U.S. teachers for students in kindergarten to 12th grade.
School districts purchase licenses for Apangea's services and provide their students access during school and after hours from home. Based on one of the world's largest bodies of longitudinal research on cognition originally conducted by the U.S. military, Apangea has proven effective in over 3,000 schools. The privately owned company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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