Coach Highlight 1: Lucas Hinds

Listen here to our interview with Lucas Hinds! Lucas is a senior in high school who has coached both elementary and middle school GAIM teams since 2021.  He started his own online math circle, Many Math Circles and More, in 6th grade during the Covid shutdown, to fill a need he saw for a local math club in Tennessee. When he noticed that his math circle was 80% boys and 20% girls, he turned towards GAIM to bring more girls into the circle.

Interview conducted by Victoria Tan of the Math-M-Addicts Junior Board.

Transcript

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Well, hi, it's nice to finally meet you. I have a few questions for this interview. If you have any questions, you can definitely go ahead and ask as well. But do you mind giving a little background or a really short introduction of yourself? Maybe talk a little bit about how you got into math?

Lucas H

Okay. So I've been into math basically ever since I could remember. I have loved it since I was super young. I think the first time I remember actively pursuing math was first grade. When we were in the store, we walked by some math books. And I was just really passionate. So I made my parents get me a bunch of math books. And that was when I first started really learning math. And then that sort of took off from there.  I've always wanted to pursue math more and learn more about it.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Got it. Yeah. First grade. That's very young. Yeah. Sorry, I am a little sick, so excuse me if I cough. 

Lucas H

That's OK. Yeah. 

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Yeah. Sort of on the same topic, I guess. How did you first get involved with GAIM and what inspired you to become a coach for that?

Lucas H

I think I'd have to start with MMC&M. So when COVID started I was in around seventh grade. I created an online math circle for a couple reasons. First, because the math resources here in Tennessee aren't very good. There aren’t that many resources out there for people who want to pursue math. None of my schools have a math club or anything. So when COVID started, I thought it was a good opportunity to try doing an online math circle, a math club. And it started out just small, just me teaching people sort of what I was passionate about. And eventually we got more specialized into competition math stuff. But one thing I noticed. I think it was three years ago maybe we first signed up for GAIM. But the reason why is just because over the first couple of years I was running the Math Circle, we didn't really get very many girls in the circle. Like I would say the ratio was like 80% boys to 20% girls. And I wanted to encourage more girls to join because I love math. I want to share my passion with a broader audience. So I thought that us signing up for that competition might bring more girls into the math circle and just introduce more girls to math in general. So it was a great opportunity in terms of, I mean, obviously another fun competition for us to enter. And it was a great opportunity to broaden my audience in the math circle.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Cool, yeah, no, I definitely see sort of this like gender gap in math even now, so it's great that that was one of the reasons that you got involved with GAIM. So what would you say a typical team prep session looks like?

Lucas H

OK, it really varies. Let me see, so. Usually, the first week or so, because everything's going on online. So it has its disadvantages to in-person sessions. And one of those disadvantages is that it's hard to really get to know people online and hard to make those connections. So the first week or two, usually I'm just introducing some competition math concepts and teaching the basics and going over problems. But as I go on in the practice sessions, I like to start getting them to work together instead of me just leading everything because I feel like the teamwork and cooperation is one of the things I like most about the GAIM competition. And so eventually I try to transition away from just showing them problems and having them working individually to like them talking, and eventually like towards the end, I just have them doing practice tests in groups. And I'm mostly not even involved because they, you know, all the girls in our math circle are really talented. They excel very quickly. They pick up things very quickly. And then like later on in the later practice sessions, I hardly have to do anything. They just like already know all the math and they're just flying through it. One thing I've really enjoyed sort of as we've gone through the years is that some of the girls from earlier years who really succeeded have become very strong leaders in the group. And so that's really helped because now it's not just me that's able to teach everyone new topics and stuff. It's the strong girls from previous teams teaching new concepts to everyone. And I think that's really cool that, sort of, we're getting new leaders in the group.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Cool. Yeah. That's something really nice that I guess they can take away from the experience. So how do you approach coaching, especially with students who may lack confidence or not see themselves as sort of “math people”?

Lucas H

Well, I think the most important thing when it comes to teaching is just to, well, I think this sort of comes from my philosophy about learning math in general. You really have to do the math in order to learn it. So I really like to give plenty of time for everyone to think about the problems on their own. I don't like to jump right into, you know, usually I'll give a brief overview of a topic if I'm going over something. Maybe I'll talk about combinatorics. So if I'm talking about permutations and stuff, I'll introduce them to the idea of permutations, but then I'll let them work on their own on problems. And I feel like when you get the answer to a problem on your own, that sticks with you a lot more than someone just telling you the answer. Like one of the things, especially the formula for n choose k, I really like it when I'm able to sort of lead them to figure that out by themselves, versus me just explaining that to them, because that's actually how I was taught the formula for n choose k, and I was able to memorize it a lot easier and remember it, because I figured it out myself. Of course, sometimes I asked the right questions to lead me there. In summary, I think that the way I like to teach and introduce math competition topics is to lead them to figure out stuff by themselves. Sometimes, you know, all the girls in the math school are really talented. Sometimes they figure it out by themselves without needing to prompt them. It's really great when that happens. But sometimes they need just a question that sparks them down the path. I can't think of a good example, but one of the things I like to do the most when I'm teaching is just asking questions. Like, if they can't solve the big question that I want them to ask, then I'll ask a smaller question. And then they can answer that, and then maybe that leads them down the path. If not, I'll ask another question. And then it really helps, even if I'm leading them down the path just indirectly with questions, I think it builds confidence that, you know, I'm not giving them any hints, really. I'm leading them down a path indirectly, but they're really answering all the questions themselves. So I think that's good for building confidence and retaining the things you're learning.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Yeah, those are really good insights, especially seeing as you're only in high school. You're actually one of two GAIM high school coaches, which is really impressive considering how many people participate in GAIM all over the country. But yeah, do you have any fun stories or moments from coaching that were especially memorable?

Lucas H

I have a couple. So I think the funnest thing is when I've had, this has happened a few times, but I think most memorably last year, online coaching has the disadvantage that it's really hard for people to make connections within the teams. But, last year especially, I feel like everyone seemed like they were best friends in all teams and stuff. Like after we were done with the math, everyone just wanted to stay in the Zoom room and chat with each other and just like draw and talk to each other. And I think that's super cool that I was able to sort of indirectly create friendships like that just through the shared passion for math. And I think that was super cool just like seeing everyone have fun, even outside of the context of math, just messing around and having fun after the session was over.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Cool, yeah. That is a fun anecdote. Do you have any advice to give to someone who might want to coach their own GAIM team, or maybe even advice for middle and high school students in math, given that you're coaching middle school students?

Lucas H

That's interesting. I think the main thing I have in terms of both coaching and—I also do tutoring, I feel like that's sort of, there's a lot of similar ideas that come from tutoring students. I think the main thing is just to be, you have to be more patient than you realize. In fact, I think you have to be more patient than the student. And here's why I say that. I feel like, especially if the student isn't very confident, a lot of the times they'll give up on a question before they really attempt it. And it's a question that they can do. So sometimes when you're coaching or when you're tutoring, you have to, like, I've had moments where I'm coaching and everyone is stuck, especially with newer teams. Everyone's stuck on a problem and they can't think of anything. And they asked me to just give them the answer. And if I just tell them to keep trying instead, like just five minutes later, they have the solution. And I think it's important to not give away things too easily. And that's something I've had to learn because I've tutored and taught people for like a few years now. And I think it's something important that you have to really be patient and you have to not give away things too easily because, I mean, eventually, sometimes eventually they are really stuck and you have to show them how to do something. And that's fine, but it's, you should always be patient and you should always let them really give it a good try. And, you know, it's always a lot more valuable when they're able to solve it with you interfering less than with you when you show them the answer. So I think the first thing is just to be super patient.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Got it, yeah, that's really good advice. And actually we're on our last question now. So I know you mentioned that some of the girls you have taught or worked with for GAIM took away some new leadership skills from the experience. So do you have anything that you ultimately hope your students do take away from participating in GAIM?

Lucas H

Well, I think, I think there's a couple of things. So I think the whole process of doing a math competition in a team is very different from the experience of doing a solo math competition. And I think that it's something that, especially like here in Tennessee, I don't have a math team, for instance, so there's no way I could do team math competitions other than online. And I mean, I've been doing individual math competitions for a while. I'm going to, I'm talking about my own experiences with team math competitions here. So the first time I did a team math competition, I started doing competition math in like second grade with the math kangaroo test. And those are fun, sure. But team math competitions are just way more fun, first off. Anyway, the first team math competition I did was in seventh grade. It was when I started my online math circle. And the experience of just I think I had five people on my team. I forget what math competition it was, but it's really a much more… Even though it's the same thing, you're still just doing math problems. It's like definitely, it feels like so much more is going on when you're on a team and you're jumping from problem to problem trying to help people out. And sometimes you're working solo while everyone else is talking over each other, trying to give each other advice. And I think the whole—first off, it's a lot more fun to do the math competitions with your friends, I think people get into math competitions more when they get into team math competitions. And then second off, I think that the whole communication skills that you develop from doing the team math competitions are very valuable, because you have to work on your skills of conveying your thought process, and that can be super hard to do when you've only done individual math competitions. And that's actually something I've seen the most improvement on out of everyone who's done GAIM that I've seen. At the beginning of the very first few practice sessions, I always encourage people to, if they solve a problem, explain how they got their answer. And so usually the first time I hear someone explain their answer, it's very hard to see what they're trying to do. Like they're very scattered in terms of explaining their solutions, but by the end of GAIM, after they've gone through, they've worked on a team, they've had to explain their ideas, it really helps with that communication skill of communicating what you’re thinking in your thought process. So, I think that’s the biggest takeaway I want people to get from the GAIM, it’s that math communication skill, where you’re able to communicate your ideas. I think that’s super important, not just in math but in basically any STEM field you’re gonna go into. So, I think that’s a super important skill for people to have.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Cool, yeah, I 100% agree, I’ve seen that myself because I tutor some students as well, so that’s definitely a very important skill to have. Yeah, so those were all the questions I had, thank you so much for speaking with me today—it was lovely getting to know you and hear from you. Do you have any other questions or last words?

Lucas H

I don’t think so. Thank you very much!

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Okay, cool! Then, I don’t know what time it is for you where you are—I’m assuming it’s nighttime—so have a great evening!

Lucas H

Yep, you too. Thank you very much.

Victoria T (Junior Board)

Bye.

Lucas H

Bye.