Maths Association of Victoria Camp

2023 Maths Camp - Year 10 Regional Students

On Monday, June  the 26th I left for the 2023 week long Maths Association of Victoria Camp for regional Year 10 students held in Melbourne. I was quite nervous leaving on Monday morning, but overall, really excited. When I eventually arrived at Southern Cross Station at 4:30pm, I stepped off the train and onto the platform, following my google maps directions to the meeting spot. I met a MAV representative named Cameron waiting there for me, then once another boy arrived we began walking to where we were staying, at CYC.

Helen (host of the camp) greeted the last of us who had arrived and I found out that I had come the furthest to attend the camp. We walked upstairs and arrived at our camps level where I walked into six tables already surrounded by other kids. Helen gave me my introduction bag and name tag before I found which table sat my project group. I was in the Economics group, along with Conner, Sarah and Ashley who I really got to know over the course of the camp. We worked on our project which required us to find out how the cash rate affects inflation through graphs and mathematical equations throughout the course of the camp. 

After dinner we started a little math competition between groups to start working as a team. My team had a flying head start getting the first nine questions correct in a couple of minutes but we were then stumped by a factor question about cubed numbers, so we lost our lead. But it was a great exercise to get us ready for the rest of the week. That night in our free period, I got to know the other 11 girls on the camp who were all really great and we played quite creative games including mafia (which we proceeded to play for the rest of the camp). 

On Tuesday day we left for the VSSEC (Victorian Space Science Education Centre) via bus. During the bus ride I got to know Ashley and we became really good friends. Once we arrived we split into three groups and started separate activities. First we acted as scientists and took physical taste on two volunteers before, after and during physical activity. We then worked with genetics and tested for sickle cell disease with different DNA samples. Finally we used urine and blood samples to check for any abnormalities signifying bad health.

On Wednesday we walked to the Melbourne RBA (Reserve Bank Australia) Office for a presentation on economics. Afterwards, the two economists, Maddi and Chris, helped us with any parts of our presentation we didn’t understand and then we took the bus out to FORD in Broadmeadows. At FORD we had a presentation from an engineer there before having a go at their Virtual Reality equipment. 

On Thursday we went out to Scoresby to Texas Instruments where we learnt how to code on our CAS calculators and programmed a rover with them. I really enjoyed this activity and learnt a lot about coding before we left to go and have a tour of the massive RMIT campus throughout the CBD. That night back at CYC we cranked it out to finish our presentations for Friday and finally finished them at around 11pm.

On the last day we arrived at the RMIT Campus to present our projects in a large lecture hall. It went really well and I was happy and sad that it was all finally over. I have made so many friends that I still keep in contact with and can’t wait for any future reunions that we decide to have. I thoroughly enjoyed this amazing experience and am very grateful for the opportunity it gave me to explore a career in STEM. I recommend this for any future Year 10’s interested in Mathematics or any Science based career, if not, just come for the amazing friends that you will make along the way!

Charlize Fairbairn

Year 10 Student