Thirty girls in grades 4-6 will swim, bike, run and solve mathematical problems during the annual Try-Math-Lon on Saturday, April 30 on the Union College campus.
Girls Inc. and General Electric are sponsors of the event which will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., beginning at the College's Kenney Community Center at 257 Park Place. Union students will assist during events at the Alumni Gymnasium, pool and running track.
The event provides girls with an opportunity to have fun while exercising their bodies and their minds and is intended to inspire girls to enjoy and elect to study math. The events include:
Swim and Math: Girls will cooperate to measure the dimensions of a pool, then calculate the volume of water it contains and then convert the results into gallons. Girls will also track statistics for all swimmers, including total, average, mode, median and mean times.
Bike and Math: Girls will measure the circumference and diameter of each bicycle wheel to determine how many revolutions each wheel will make in order to travel a given distance. They will then ride bikes around a course, tracking how long it takes and calculating their average speed.
Run and Math: Girls will run across a field to retrieve cards marked with numbers and symbols and then arrange them in an equation. Girls will try to solve as many equations as they can in a given time.
The College's Kenney Center provides a number of programs through which Union students volunteer their time to work with Schenectady City youth, including providing after-school homework assistance and as Big Brothers and Big Sisters.