Multiplication alongside the monkey bars
Teen wins city grant with idea to put a math wall in his neighbourhood park
KITCHENER — Within a few months, Morrison Park in southeast Kitchener will be a place to not only play softball, kick a soccer ball or clamber on a jungle gym, it also will be a place to do long division and geometry.
In July, a three-metre wooden “math wall” will go up in the neighbourhood park, with interactive tools and tricks, an abacus and a solar-powered calculator. Next to the wall will be a picnic table, so kids can come to the park to do their homework.
The math wall is the brainchild of 14-year-old Lazar Paroski, who recently was awarded a $6,000 placemaking grant from the City of Kitchener to make his vision a reality.
Lazar hopes his math wall might trigger a love of math in more kids, or at least make it more accessible.
“Kids really think classrooms are boring,” he said. “And parks are really fun — you get to play and socialize. I just thought if there was a math wall outside, the fun-ness of the park might drip onto the math wall and give it some good vibes for kids.”
Lazar was surfing the internet one day this winter when he came across Kitchener’s placemaking challenge, which invites residents to submit ideas for creating or improving gathering places throughout the city.
The challenge, part of the city’s new neighbourhood strategy, will award 15 grants from $1,000 to $20,000 for ideas that help spark community and create a sense of place. Lazar’s was the first grant awarded, said Darren Kropf of Kitchener’s neighbourhood development office.
Lazar’s idea was unique and captured the selection committee’s attention in a competitive process that included 43 applications, Kropf said. “I don’t think there’s a math wall anywhere else.”
Lazar got the idea after reading that about half of local Grade 6 students fell short of the provincial math standard in the most recent round of standardized testing. He then came across a photo on Pinterest of a music wall of percussion instruments someone had made.
“That got me thinking, ‘Why can’t I make a math wall?’ And the idea sprang from there.”
But Lazar didn’t stop there. He researched the math curriculum for grades 1 to 6, and created a bristol-board prototype with more than a dozen math tools and tricks — everything from an abacus to the formulas for working out the area and volume of geometric shapes.
He went door to door in his neighbourhood to see if people thought the idea was appealing, and then set up four different feedback sessions — at the two schools closest to the park, one at nearby Centreville Chicopee community centre, and one during a free Family Day swim at Lyle Hallman pool — to hear
from kids about which tools they liked the most.
The committee was impressed by how much work Lazar had put into his proposal.
“That just showed the passion that he had,” Kropf said. “It really gave the committee confidence that this was a kid that was actually going to make this happen.”
City staff are working with Lazar to finalize the design and install the math wall, which will be unveiled on the weekend of July 27-29, when all 15 projects will be inaugurated.
Vincent Sylvestre, Lazar’s math teacher at Père-René-de-Galinée high school in Cambridge, said he was pleased, but not surprised to hear Lazar’s idea was a winner.
“Lazar’s very focused, and he’s always looking for a challenge,” Sylvestre said.
The deadline for the second round of grants of $1,000 to $2,000 is April 9. People can apply at lovemyhood.ca.