PSU Magazine Winter 1992

\ I 1 ~ I i of tudent work fills more than 20 file cabinets in the PSU Math Resource Lab-"the fin est math resource lab in the sta te of O regon," say Jensen. Developed, stocked, fin anced, and organized entirely by Bennett and her part- time ass istant , Eleanor Rigdon, the lab contains problems, games, puzz les, and teaching plan by grade leve l. The e are ava ilable to elementary and secondary schoo l teachers th roughout the sta te. Parents are welcome, too. Mo t of the math lab games are handmade. Younge r children might work with simple games, similar to tic– tac-toe or bingo, learning to identify number · and incorporate simple arith– metic concepts. More sophisticated materials might include extrapolating a mathematics problem from a news story. For example, a student working with a tory about Neil Goldschmidt's uc– ce , 'ful bid for governor of O regon deve loped a problem that required com– pu ting a fund -raising budget for the candidate's campaign . Bennett u ed to haul a large two– whee led ca rt around in her car, full of games fo r tuto ring at schools like Mar– tin Lu ther King Junior or Brookl yn Elementa ry. But more and more, she '' Whenever I get excited about a new project, there's a group of students here who I know I can convince to do it w ith me . '' heard requests from teachers for games that parents could play at home with their children. In early 1989, Bennett sponsored an evening work hop at Brooklyn Elemen– tary chool fo r parent and first-grade children. The object was to make sets of math games and puzz le fo r playing together at home. There were two rules: child re n and parents had to par– ticipate in pa irs, and fo r every math game they made up to take home, another had to be made fo r someone else's use. Over a dozen children and their parents showed up fo r the first math game workshop. ince then, the for- At Tubman Middle School, a child partic~pating in the "I Have a Dream" pro· gram takes advantage of Bennett's after-schooltutoring. 18 PSU mul a has been repeated numerous time · and ha been picked up fo r ta tewide use by O regon 's Department of Education . The cen ter of all this acti vity, the PSU Math Resource Lab, ex ists be– cause of Bennett's pe r onal commit– ment. But due to Measure 5 cutbacks in the tate ducation system, Bennett's posi tion will not be filled when she retires. W ithout someone to d irectly upervise it, the math lab may be in jeopardy. Department hair Bruce Jensen has in itiated a fund in honor of Professor Bennett to be administered through the PSU Foundation. Money ra ised through the fund will pay fo r the math lab and te ting center act ivities-func– tions Bennett now supervises. Ca lled the Mildred L. Bennett Math Resource Lab and T est Center Fund , Jensen says the goal is to build an endowment base of $50,000. In retrospect, Bennett say it is fo r– tuitous that she came to Portl and State 37 years ago. In most cases, he says, students who study at the Uni versity are here because they want to be, and they're willing to work hard. "That's made life more interesting and li vable fo r me," Bennett says. "Whenever I get exc ited about a new project, there's a group of students here who I know I can convince to do it with me." Although she will officially retire thi June, Bennett will stay through summer te rm to teach the elementary school teacher certification courses, and she has also been asked to remain on the fac ulty part time during the fo l– lowing academic year to supervise some of the student tu toring acti vities. And of course, there's the volunteer work at Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School and Tubman Mid– dle chool. Already she's planning more games fo r the math lab and fo r parent and child math workshop . It doesn't sound much like ret ire– men t. But then Mildred Bennett may have known that all along. "If I have a choice," she says, "I'd like to d ie with chalk in my hand." D (Eva Hunter i a Portland free-lance writer.)