A night of fun, fellowship — and math
Sebastian Alvarez squinted in concentration as he played the card game War with another fourth-grader in his classroom at the Gardner Pilot Academy (GPA). Instead of traditional playing cards, the ones in his deck depicted colorful fractions. “It’s a math game,” he explained. “The person whose card has the bigger fraction wins both cards.” The point? “It makes math more fun!” he said. Alvarez was one of more than 150 students and family members participating in Family Math Night at GPA. The card game that he was playing was just one of the hundreds of classroom materials the Harvard Achievement Support Initiative (HASI) has provided to the teachers, after-school staff, and families as part of SmartTALK, a program that supports exceptional learning for children at school and at home. Playing games that emphasized math skills was just one aspect of how GPA and Harvard support the academy’s students. Principal Erica Herman designed Family Night...