Did you know that the year 2025 is a perfect square? 45^2! And (20 + 25)^2 = 2025 too! Even (1 + 2 + … + 9)^2 and 1^3 + 2^3 + … + 9^3 all equal to 2025. It's kind of wild how many coincidences this year has had!
To celebrate the end of this very “mathy” year, the Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society sponsored its 2025 Gingerbread House event after school on Friday, December 19.
It was the club’s most fun event and an excellent way to wrap up the year. Organized and led by club president Ryan Li, about 10 students came together in groups of 2-3 to build gingerbread houses from kits. By the end, we had around four finished houses, and we compared them all to pick the best-looking one.
The winning group even got Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut Chocolates. The event was completely free, and there was also a ton of pizza and refreshments for students to enjoy. Ryan said it was “a great break from the math we were doing, and since most of us were seniors and it was our last year at BRHS, we wanted to spend our time having the last bit of fun.”
Some students found the event even more exciting.
Senior Ayaan Hossain said, “Everyone got to celebrate before the winter break, and it was a wonderful experience for everyone to collaborate and decorate the gingerbread houses.”
“Frankly, it’s a W,” Senior Andre Nalliannan noted. “The gingerbread houses low-key tasted bussin’ for real.”
Matthew Yu threw in a quick fun fact: “Gingerbread houses didn’t actually become a thing until after Hansel and Gretel got popular in the 1800s -- bakers started making candy-covered houses because of it.”
Overall, the gingerbread house activity was a huge success, and it was a great way for members and non-members to hang out, laugh, and enjoy the last few days of school in 2025. Ryan said it was “a great experience,” and he hopes the club will host a similar celebration at the end of the year as a graduation send-off.
Mu Alpha Theta also greatly thanks its advisors, Mrs. Giuseppina Di Martino and Giuseppina Mrs. Bologno, for letting us run this event. Students interested in future activities can join the Mu Alpha Theta Google Classroom with the code 5w6diwk -- we do fun stuff pretty often, it’s usually free, and there’s almost always food!