Jay Rand challenges students with Gauss' classic math puzzle on day one

Rocky Point High School math teacher Jay Rand likes to challenge his students with a classic head-scratcher on the first day of class: Sum up the digits from 1 to 100, without counting.

But first, he tells them about 19th century German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who famously came up with the quickest solution while still in elementary school. “Your challenge is to figure out how he did it,” Rand tells his students.

Most can’t, but that’s the point, Rand said: “The lesson is that problem solvers don’t always get the solution, but they don’t give up either.” 

Rand, 50, who grew up in Rocky Point, has a bachelor’s degree in math education from LIU Post in Brookville and masters’ degrees from Stony Brook University and Queens College. He lives in Southold and began teaching at Rocky Point High School 28 years ago.

Over the years, Rand developed a teaching perspective that fellow math teacher Janece Alfredson said “helps students view math in a different light.”

Another math department colleague noted something else. “He has an uncanny way of connecting with students of all backgrounds and experiences,” said Rich Brons.

Rand’s students work in groups of three, utilizing what he calls a “growth mindset,” a technique he adopted after reading “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” (Ballentine 2008) by psychologist Carol S. Dweck.

“The whole idea of the mindset is getting kids to understand that with effort they will improve, and rebranding mistakes as being part of learning, ” Rand explained. “If you work hard and learn from your mistakes, you’re going to keep getting better and better.”

Some assignments reflect challenges Rand faced as a home contractor before he became a teacher. “A lot of geometry is making parallel and perpendicular lines, and triangles and rectangles, which are fundamental to building anything,” he said. “The hope is that when they leave my class in high school, they can apply their problem-solving skills to the real world.”

As a youth, Rand also worked as an educator at Fire Island National Seashore. He is an avid bird-watcher and founded the high school’s Ornithology Club two years ago. He takes its 30 members on nature walks on campus and in local parks, where he said they’ve spotted a bald eagle, a great egret and a rare yellow throated Vireo. He also surveys local dragonfly populations and lectures on moths and butterflies at district STEAM events.

Rand “has been amazingly beneficial for myself and many of my classmates,” Class of 2025 valedictorian Matteo Gravinese wrote in an email. “His attitude toward self-teaching fosters a deeper understanding” added Gravinese, a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

For the Gauss solution, students have to wait until the next day of class, “to encourage them to keep working on it,” their teacher said. “If I give you the answer, the learning stops.”

Answer: Gauss’ solution is to realize that each pair at the opposite end of the number series (1+100, 2+99) gives you 101. You then multiple 101 by 50, the number of pairs.

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