West Orange athlete brings math game to eager elementary-school students

Wheeler Reiss uses a card game he was taught in elementary school to teach others

March 12, 2012|By Joe Williams, Orlando Sentinel

WINTER GARDEN — He is 6 feet 3, but Wheeler Reiss' mom calls him a gentle giant.

"He always has been very contemplative, always very much a child who loved to learn," Berit Reiss said. "Whether it is reading, science or math, he never went through a phase where he didn't enjoy learning."

The West Orange senior water-polo player and swimmer is trying to bring that love of learning to a group of about 25 fourth- and fifth-graders in Dillard Street Elementary's after-school enrichment program. He is using a math game that first was introduced to him when he was in the fourth grade at Lusher Elementary in New Orleans.

"I remember the effect it had on my life and the spark it gave me to go on and learn more," said Reiss, who has a weighted 5.05 grade-point average and ranks No. 4 academically in his senior class.

"I felt like I needed to give that back."

It's known as the 24 Game, a card game in which students are given a card with four single-digit numbers on it. They must use all four numbers and can add, multiple, subtract or divide those numbers to form an equation that equals 24.

The person who does it the fastest wins.

"Not only is it a game of math, but it's a game of speed," Reiss said.

"They don't even know that they are learning. They just think they are playing a game."

Said Sydney Sypko, a fifth-grader: "I don't even think of this as math. It is so much fun."

Reiss said that is what attracted him to the game..

"When I was in fourth grade, what really impacted me about the game was how much fun it was to play," Reiss said. "It was only after that I realized how much it helped me [academically]."

Reiss' first attempt to get permission to bring the game to elementary-school students wasn't successful. He originally approached six principals with emails near the end of last school year.

Then he spoke with West Orange Principal James Larsen.

Larsen told him to put together a presentation that he could make to a group of 12 principals — from elementary to high school — known as the West Orange Consortium of Principals. The presentation intrigued Dillard Principal Mark Shanoff.

"I was taken by how engaging the game was, even for adults," Shanoff said. "I also was impressed with Wheeler's demeanor and thought he would have a positive impact on our students. The first time Wheeler came to our campus and met with the kids, they were instantly drawn to him."

Reiss trained other students at West Orange, and each Thursday five or six travel to Dillard to play with the youngsters. Each is assigned a table of four or five students and oversees the game.

Dillard teacher Lindsay Moore supervises.

Larsen said at least two more elementary schools are expected to add it to their curriculum.

"It's a lot easier to work with the West Orange kids," fifth-grader Hannah Silver said. "They explain [math] in much easier ways. They have good tricks for us.

"It has helped a lot because I am not very good at division."

Said Larsen: "I never have had any [student] do this to this magnitude, to actually put himself out there like Wheeler has."

jrwilliams@tribune.com or 352-742-5921.

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