Maths News

Congratulations

Over the summer holidays, Year 12 student, Owen Chenhall attended the National Maths Summer School, organised by ANU in Canberra.

Over the course of a week last January, I had the privilege and opportunity to participate in the National Mathematics Summer School (NMSS). While this is usually held at the Australian National University campus in Canberra, recent world events prevented this from being held as planned. 

The NMSS staff did a great job of transitioning the camp to an online format and my experience was great nonetheless. Not only was I challenged in a mathematical sense and shown new and interesting ways of approaching problems, but I also had the opportunity to meet many new people and generate contacts within the world of mathematics that will no doubt be extremely useful in my future endeavours. My understanding and horizons were expanded to new heights as the world of higher mathematics was unpacked before me. 

This opportunity was invaluable to me not only due to the mathematic skills and applications I learnt (which were many), but also the connections I made and the level to which this experience expanded my mind to the many opportunities and fields that high level mathematics can lead to. 

I would definitely recommend anyone who is thinking this sounds like something they would be interested in to apply. You won’t regret it. 

~ Owen Chenhall

    Year 12 Student

Iris Chenhall and Evelyn Holzmann also attended a women’s Science and Mathematics programme named Curious Minds which is aimed at girls in Year 9 and 10.  

Get involved in the Curious Minds programme by excelling at STEM!!!! It is a fun experience for girls to meet women in STEM and do experiments. 

Curious Minds is a hands-on extension and mentoring programme to ignite girls’ passion in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This year we had the amazing privilege of attending this camp and representing St Philip's College. 

The camp was super fun and engaging and a wonderful experience and there are still more sessions coming up for us to get involved in.  Whilst this may not be for everyone, getting involved in STEM and different STEM activities is a great way to have fun and meet new people. 

We would really like to thank Ms Hutchinson for recommending us, helping us to get organised, and continuing to support us throughout the programme. One of my favourite parts of the Curious Minds programme was meeting all the people involved. We got to learn about all the homo species and the evolution of humans. We also had the opportunity to make enzymes!

~ Evelyn Holzmann & Irish Chenhall

    Year 10 students