Math can be exciting.

An ISU professor recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to convince elementary-aged students it is, anyway.

Dan Ashlock, associate professor of mathematics, received a $15,000 grant to develop a Web site promoting “Math Night,” an event that encourages elementary-school students and their parents to explore mathematics.

Many facets are explored during Math Night, including aspects not normally encountered during school work. During the night, children can visit several stations featuring fun facts or games that help develop mathematical reasoning skills.

“It gives the kids an alternate slant on mathematics,” said Ashlock, who is also an associate professor at the Virtual Reality Applications Center.

Math taught between kindergarten and high school typically misses 95 percent of “math out there,” Ashlock said, although the way mathematics is being taught is slowly changing.

Teaching mathematics in a manner that largely builds up to calculus is not useful for most professions, Ashlock said.

“We’re still stuck in a sort of Cold War mentality, preparing people to go out and design intercontinental ballistic missiles,” he said. With that in mind, he designed Math Night to introduce children to less-represented areas of math.

Ashlock started the program five years ago. The program is currently hosted at Edwards Elementary and Northwood Elementary and was recently launched at Gilbert Elementary as well.

He wrote a grant proposal and was awarded the grant a year ago; he received the check three months ago. “The grant does not help with Math Night here – it helps get the materials we need to put on the Web site so other schools can have Math Night,” he said.

The Web site contains six modules. “[Each module is a] self-contained math activity station, complete with big tri-fold displays and exploration questions and exercises,” according to the current Math Night Web site.

Ashlock said there are nine more modules being developed. He said he plans to have the site completed by June, then begin advertising it on the Internet.

“It takes a great deal of effort to organize an event like this,” Gilbert principal Karl Shloerke said. “Our staff is very enthusiastic about this. I anticipate high participation.”

Janet Dixon, coordinator of the program with Ashlock at Northwood Elementary, said the goal of the program is to do things that are fun and appealing to children, while still being educational.

“It’s good for the kids and parents to interact mathematically,” she said.

Dixon said the program gets a boost from volunteer ISU students from two math courses. Dixon said that like the night itself, the volunteers are able to be helpful and have fun.

“[Fun is] what it’s all about. The main purpose is to show kids that math is more than arithmetic, that it can be fun,” Dixon said.