Tag: math

Student Life News, Newsletter

Pi Day Celebrations: Monday 3/13

March 10, 2023
Student Life News

What do you know about pi? Do you know that it is an irrational number, which means that the number never ever ever stops? Do you know that it is the ratio of the length around a circle to the length through a circle? Do you know that its applications are vast and robust: helping us to even estimate the volume of our entire universe? Well, whether you do or don’t, you are invited to celebrate one of the most exciting holidays with us this Monday! Our students will be competing in a school-wide endeavor to recite as many digits, in decreasing size order, of pi as possible. In case that is not exciting enough, we have sweetened the deal! The winner will be treated to boba, and anyone who can correctly list more than 31 digits of pi will receive 10 points of extra credit towards their next math test! Please encourage your child to set a goal of how many numbers they would like to memorize, and work on this endeavor this weekend. Some of our students are off to a head start and can already rattle off 50 digits! We are looking forward to sharing this giddiness around math on Monday, while feasting on pie, and celebrating our hard work. 

Thank you!
-Mrs. Leddy

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Academics News, Newsletter, Student Life News

5th and 6th Grade Field Trip with Mrs. Leddy

Academic News of the Week
March 3, 2023
Mrs. Darragh Leddy, Math Teacher and Field Trip Supervisor

This past Wednesday, the 5th and 6th grade math classes visited Randall Museum. In math class, we recently learned about ratios, proportions, and scale factors. To see the applications of scale factors we have been studying maps. Students had to print out a map that instructed them how to get from school to Randall Museum. I accompanied them, but did not give any direction; not even when they disputed whether they were going the correct direction or not. Students worked together, explaining clearly why their interpretation of the map was correct and were able to listen to each other and come to an agreement. We only went wrong once! We stopped at Corona Heights Park, climbed a huge rock (very carefully), and had clear panoramic views of the city. We played eye spy and had fun taking in the span of San Francisco. We could even see Mt Diablo, which some students learned was not LA. At Randall Museum, students toured other middle schoolers’ science projects that Randall Museum is displaying this month. Our students now have a greater understanding of what a science project entails, and have some great ideas for what they plan to test next year in their very own science project. We also visited animals that Randall Museum is rehabilitating. Students were particularly enamored with the raccoon. We look forward to more field trips, more time outside, and more ideas to test and share our results with our community!

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Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic News of the Week 

February 10, 2023
Mr. Ray Chen, Math and Science and Integrated Math and Science Teacher

We started our journey of computer science education in our middle school and high school back in August last year. What we have right now is integrated biology and computer science for 9th/10th graders. In addition to that, we have 8th grade’s physical science integrated with computer science too. 

This semester, based on positive feedback regarding computer science, we’re piloting 6th grade math integration with computer science. By doing that, 6 graders not only learned, for example, prime factorization using pencil and paper. They will be able to “teach” computers how to do prime factorization by writing codes in JavaScript. In the near future, all of our middle schoolers and our high schoolers will be able to program an APP for a concept learned from all level science classes and math classes.

And on a final note, “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.”- Albert Einstein

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Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic News of the Week 

January 27, 2023
Mrs. Darragh Leddy, Math Teacher

Last week our 6th, 7th and 8th graders took the AMC 8. We are very proud of our students for participating in this mathematics competition, and we hope our students are proud of themselves as well. We encourage students to reflect on their score and set a goal for next year’s competition. The competition consists of 25 multiple choice questions and each question is worth one point. Perhaps, a goal for next year is to go up one point or maybe ten points or maybe to achieve a perfect score. Whatever the goal is it is attainable with the right timing and focus. Furthermore, we want students to think back to the very first AMC they took and realize that their official score from last week is a lot better than the very first test’s score was, and they have learned a whole lot of math along the way! 

Alongside the excitement of completing the AMC 8, our math classes are back in full swing in the second semester. AP Calculus BC is just one week away from finishing the entire curriculum! The speed has been fast, but the 11th and 12th graders have been good sports! The remaining 11 weeks before the AP exam will be dedicated to intensive review and practicing real past exams. Precalculus is cruising through their honors curriculum and we look forward to some field trips and projects. Algebra II and Algebra I have been hard at work keeping on pace with schedule. Our latest highlight was a group quiz, in which students exhibited excellent communication skills, words of encouragement, and humility when they or a classmate spotted a gap in their logic. Our 6th and 5th graders are both being pushed a little above their grade level and most are reveling in the challenge and that they can handle the material. And on a final note, here is a quote to ponder, said by Edward Kasner: “Mathematics is the science which uses easy words for hard ideas.”

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Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic News of the Week

January 13, 2023
Mrs. Darragh Leddy, Math Teacher

Our 6th, 7th and 8th graders have been hard at work over the last 4 months prepping for AMC 8! AMC 8 is the American Mathematics Competition at the 8th grade level. The AMC offers competitions at 3 levels: the 8th, 10th and 12 grades. Any student that is in or below the 8th grade is eligible to participate in AMC 8. The AMC is the most well known mathematics competition in America. Performing well on this exam can open doors, scholarships, and is very impressive on a resume. 

Testing Day: Thursday, January 19th at 8:05am in Room 203. The test is online, so please bring a laptop with you to Room 203. You will be given scrap paper and are not allowed to use a calculator, or any other technology or resources. Please bring a few pencils and erasers for your scrap work. The test is 40 minutes long. You will be dismissed once all students have completed and submitted the AMC 8 and you will be released to the remainder of your first period class on Thursday morning. 

Prep Work: In math class, we have been using past tests to prepare for the AMC 8. Please see the link below for a full listing. Students are very comfortable with questions 1-10 from tests administered from 2022 to 2015 (a total of 7 tests). Students, please continue to review all 7 tests. Parents, please quiz your child on these questions. And, if you want an extra challenge try some of the questions from 11-15, or even more advanced from 16-25. Furthermore, there are 16 more tests that you can try and use to prepare. I am available for any questions and help. Test resource: https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/AMC_8_Problems_and_Solutions. 

We are very grateful that our students have the opportunity to participate in this competition and showcase the hard work they have put into excelling their mathematics foundation. We encourage all students and families to take this opportunity by the reins and reap as much of the benefits it has to offer. 

Happy Studying & Testing! 

Mrs Leddy 

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Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic News of the Week

December 9, 2022
Mrs. Darragh Leddy, Math Teacher

This past Friday, the 11th and 12th graders went on a field trip with Mrs Leddy. They had the good fortune of visiting a company downtown, called Unspun. Unspun is a startup that is working hard to automate the making of clothing and they have started with jeans, but hope to expand their products to a wide variety of apparel. Furthermore, Unspun is environmentally motivated and so they are using materials that are ethically sourced and most importantly materials that will last you a long time, ideally the length of your life. So much of our clothing today ends up in landfill and Unspun is tasked with reducing that percentage and thus improving the health of our planet. Unspun is composed of many young employees that are software engineers, textile engineers, firmware engineers, marketers, human resources, and fashion researchers. The employees of Unspun took most of their morning to give HSArts 11th and 12th graders a tutorial of their one-of-a-kind machine that currently makes their apparel, explaining, the materials they use and the customers they have worked for, and the company’s overall ethos. Afterwards, Unspun prepared a panel of employees to speak with our students and explain what their job is, what makes them good at their role, and what their advice is for young, intelligent San Francisco students eager to learn and interested in contributing their talents to the workforce in not too long of a time. We are incredibly thankful that this hardworking startup took time to spread wisdom and excitement with our students as they discern their next steps. Unspun is a great company that we encourage all to check out, and maybe even purchase a pair of jeans that you wear for life and help reduce our carbon footprint! 

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Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic Class of the Week – Integrated Sciences

October 6, 2022
Mr. Ray Chen, Math and Science Teacher

Starting this school year, our innovative Integrated Science curriculum aims to incorporate computer science and data science into our core scientific subjects, such as physical science, biology, and physics. Students are learning these subjects while using computers to build models, simulate results, and analyze the resulting data. For example, our “Integrated Science – Bio Focus” class is working on reproducing current Australia’s rabbit crisis using JavaScript. Students code this real world problem of  “breed like rabbits” by randomly simulating 3-4 liters per year and 1-12 babies per litter per doe rabbit. Another coding project my math students are working on is using repetition to tell if a number is prime. The manual process of telling prime is tedious but JavaScript only needs 8 lines to take input and give output, true/false of prime. Students not only build up their coding skills but also get the important sense that their future careers may benefit from computer science and data science. 

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Academics News, Newsletter

Featured Academic Class of the Week: Pre-Algebra

September 29, 2022
By Mr. Brian Nieh, Math Teacher +

Hello! Our students just completed the Chapter 2 test on fractions, and as a class showed good overall improvement…yay! With Chapter 2 behind us, we move on from fractions to decimals and percentages. Just as there are an infinite number of numbers between whole numbers 1 and 2, there is a boundless world of math waiting ahead of our students beyond simple arithmetic. But in order to get there, we need to keep practicing, doing problems, and getting very familiar with times tables, converting fractions and decimals, and order of operations (in other words, our first chapters). 

To all the students: Don’t fear homework, it’s good for you. It builds character. Keep up the hard work! Your future mathematician self will thank you 😀 

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