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2 to the power of 389 by Mitchell Zimmer "Math contests, math problems,
I've always enjoyed doing math problems" recalls Tom Griffiths, who has
taken on the challenge of finding students from grades five through high
school who have a passion for mathematics. "Basically in England when I
first started teaching, I got into a department of very young, enthusiastic
people. There were fifteen of us and we were always working on math problems.
That was back in '62."
In January of 1996 he began
visiting local schools on a weekly basis to help interested students.
However, it soon became apparent that this method was too expensive both
in terms of time and energy. As it happened, The University of Western
Ontario decided at the same time that they needed to establish an outreach
program for high ability mathematics students. In those early days, Griffiths
started with a two-hour class every week with six or seven participants
for the year. Soon, word started to spread and the classes began to swell
as well as more instructors showing up to volunteer their time. As the program grew, keeping
track of everything became more complicated, that's when Tom's wife, Marlene,
became involved. "My background is bookkeeping," she says. "When he [Tom]
first did it, he would keep a class list to know who was coming and things
like that. But then as it got more extensive, he'd spend two hours teaching,
come home and there would be two more hours of work at home... so I started
in on that three years ago." Now 389 students within the
area are involved. "It's getting so big that, not only does Tom need my
help," Marlene says, "but I have to have other people coming in and helping
me now.... It was a zoo." Some members of the high school senior class
now volunteer for community service credit. There are times when classes
have become so packed that some students have to sit on the floor. As
a result, the registrations for grades five through eight are now closed.
" We just can't enrol any more," says Marlene. But the benefits from all this work are worthwhile. One student has received 100% on the Descartes, another a gold medal in the Euclid contest with 98%. Three students wrote perfect papers in the Fermat and at least one perfect paper in the Galois. These results have prompted the Mathematics Department to endow Tom with the honorary title of Mathematics Co-ordinator. Next June 14, the Griffiths' are running next year's Ontario Math Olympics which is to be held in London for the first time. The grade seven and eight contest will attract 100-115 students from all over the province. Also in June, a team from Western's Math Challenge program will go to American Regional Math Heat at Penn State. Tom also adds, "We've been working together as well on the National Math Camp for five years. This is a camp where we invite between twenty three to twenty five kids from all over Canada, the top grade eight, nine and ten students."
When considering how busy this couple is, one has to wonder if they have any time to themselves. "Math isn't all we do, we do a lot of dancing. ...We've been involved with the morris dance team for twenty years," says Tom. " We also do country dancing. We used to perform in a vintage ballroom dance group demonstrating eighteenth and nineteenth century ballroom dancing at places like the ROM. I do a very nice allemande." They also play concertinas, "Marlene plays diatonic, I play the English Concertina which is chromatic. We play different concertinas. It's handy, we can't pinch each other's concertinas, I can't play hers, and she can't play mine." Both Tom and Marlene are aware of recent reports that indicate that involvement in music and art enhances mathematical ability. Tom says that is due to the recognition of "Patterns, it's all patterns." The Griffiths' seem to be living proof that the converse may be true as well. |
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That same enthusiasm had remained with
Griffiths while teaching High School mathematics for 34 years. During
that time, he had been involved in various roles in the U.S. Olympiad,
the Canadian Olympiad, and the Canadian Mathematics Competitions Descartes
and Euclid contests. Then, in 1988, "I was asked to Chair the CIMC
(Canadian Invitational Mathematics Contest) Committee and start that
contest." Griffiths says, " It was an essay style contest for grade
ten and eleven students and so on and I have been involved in this
for..ever." Since his retirement from teaching in 1995, he has pursued
his interest in math contests. "This is a continuation ... I feel
that all my employment time was in preparation for doing this. It's
like, now I'm in my real job. I just don't get paid for it. That's
the only difference." 