WSMA Washington Student Math Association

Supporting and connecting students and math clubs

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question that is not listed here, please feel free to contact us and ask. We will update this page as additional questions arise.

What is WSMA?

WSMA stands for the Washington Student Math Association. We are a non-profit group led primarily by high school students in the greater Seattle area. Our primary purpose is to inspire greater interest and curiosity for mathematics among K-12 students by supporting local area math clubs.

For more details, please visit our About Us page.

What are your different services?

We provide a variety of different services, but all of them ultimately contribute towards our efforts to promote a greater mathematical interest and a more open perspective towards math. Below is an abbreviated list of our services:

  1. We help coaches and leaders improve their Math Club programs by providing them with online resources and information, including lesson plans, math problems, sample coaching materials and information about competitive events.
  2. We are a network of coaches, presidents and leaders hailing from local area math clubs that can provide guidance to aspiring math club coaches that may wish to contact us. We can be reached online or through our Facebook page.
  3. We run regular public math practices free of cost; in our first year we ran practices on a monthly basis. Practice schedules are posted on our home page.

For more details, please visit our Services page.

How can I become involved with WSMA?

Regardless of whether you are a student, coach, parent, or none of the above, it is easy to become involved with the WSMA. One way to become involved immediately is to navigate to our website and register to become an online member of our network. Membership is free of charge, and once you register your email will be added to our mailing list (your personal information will be kept private). This will help us keep in contact with you regarding upcoming WSMA meetings and volunteer opportunities.

How long are practices, and how do we become involved?

Practices are two hours long, and the location/time details are posted in advance on our Calendar of Events or on our Home Page. Practices are free to the public for people of all ages and math backgrounds, and are led by experienced, high school student practice leads.

What exactly do you do at leadership board meetings?

To make progress on all fronts through our different services, we generally divide our workload up into individual and group tasks. The primary focus of our student board meetings is to delegate these tasks to our different teams and individual contributing members, as well as make progress on these tasks. During meetings, we brainstorm new ideas for our upcoming math-related projects. For more details, our Board Meetings has minutes from our past meetings.

Do you get volunteer hours for going to meetings?

Yes – attending meetings, as well as tutoring, counts for non-profit volunteer hours.

Where do you usually meet?

We usually meet at the Sammamish Microsoft Campus. For more directions on how to get to our meetings, please join our Board Meetings mailing list by modifying your Email Subscriptions after logging on to our website. Additionally, you may Contact Us.

Where do you park for meetings?

Parking for meetings can usually be found around the back of the C Building on the Microsoft Sammamish Campus, on the elevated platform.

How often do you meet? When?

We  generally meet on Saturdays, about every one to two weeks.

What is ARML and how are selections made?

ARML stands for American Regions Mathematics League and is an annual international competition with 15 person teams representing states and regions across the nation, as well as foreign countries. ARML is generally held in early June, and is located for Washington-area students at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Selections are made by Tom Norris, the team coach, who may be reached at tomn@wastudentmath.org.

What is a math club?

A math club is a group of people, generally students from grades 1-12, that meet regularly to study and discuss math in order to prepare for local contests. Math clubs are usually school organizations that consist of not only students but also school staff and parents. Math clubs are led by coaches, teacher advisors and student presidents and officers.