Teachers seek help from students in creating Carson City Counts logo

Two Carson City teachers are creating a new initiative to get children and families excited about math, and they need help.

Carson City Counts, created by Kim Whisler and Sarah Lobsinger, is a website designed to provide resources and activities for school aged children and their families to help learn and make math fun. To kick off the program, the two are looking for students to help design the logo for the new program.

“The biggest thing is that we love math, but lots of people don’t,” Whisler said. “Lots of people think that it is okay to not like math, but we don’t feel the same about reading and so we have all sorts of programs and activities we do to get our kids to read more. We wanted to create the same thing for math.

“It is our effort to change people’s attitudes about math so even if you aren’t good at it or don’t like it, that can be changed,”

The program isn’t sponsored by the school district, but is a community initiative that’s supported by members of the school district. The program will send home materials about the mission with students, but the goal isn’t to be putting extra work on teachers or homework on students.

“It isn’t about adding more to the teachers’ plates and we are not adding more homework,” Lobsinger said. “I know as a parent, my daughter would be sent home with fun activities for reading, but we weren’t getting any fun ideas about math (and how to incorporate it into everyday activities) and we just think parents should be made aware of fun things they can do with math with their kids.”

“We are just two people who want to take the fear out of math and who want to provide resources to do that,” Whisler added.

The website won’t be launched until February, but the two are looking to get the word out about their program by setting up the logo contest. Any student, they don’t have to live in Carson City, can submit their logo design and the two will pick the top three finalists. From there, the top three will get prizes and present them at the Board of Supervisors meeting in February where a winner will be chosen.

Carson City students will get the entry form at school, and designs can be turned in at the school, the Carson City Library, the Carson Street Starbucks, 3228 N. Carson St. No. 15, Dunkin’ Donuts and Dutch Bros Coffee. All entry forms are due by Jan. 31. For questions contact Lobsinger at 775-283-1668 or slobsinger@carson.k12.nv.us.