Maths @ St John's
Maths News
Last term, our Year 5/6 Maths Extension Group worked on various open-ended research topics as part of The University of Melbourne 2024 Mathematics and Statistics Research Competition. They were thoroughly engaged in their projects throughout the whole term and were relieved when they were finally submitted at the start of this term.
Kirralee and Chelsea worked on Story Networks that required them to create networks to visualise and explore connections between characters from a piece of media. They then had to analyse the network by describing the different properties.
Here is a snippet of their project.
In Term 2, Kirralee & I worked on our Melbourne University long term project involving a complex system of networks from the well known story; Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone. Our main focus was on the story networks which were designed thoroughly & checked multiple times. The figure shows the size of networks based on the start, middle & end of the story network complete with a key.
- Chelsea
Bird Count
By Jasper, Ben and Jackson
This experience was actually really fun. I learnt different things and the math required us to do some things with statistics and some simple charting. At one point, we needed to analyse some spreadsheets and copy down some data which was very time-consuming. We needed to work through several questions that required going through the charts and sheets. I worked with Jackson and Ben and had a fun experience. Overall, I liked participating in Math Extension this term and hope to participate more in the future.
- Jasper
This term in Maths Extension, we had to collect data from 258 birds and present our findings to Melbourne University in a slideshow presentation. I worked with Ben and Jasper to find out the information. It was very interesting and it took us a while to do the work. We worked through many questions and answered them in charts we created ourselves. - Jackson
During Term 2, 2024, I participated in Maths Extension. The task I chose was called ‘Bird Count’ and to complete this task, Jackson, Jasper and I had to analyse spreadsheets with data on them about birds. It was quite challenging to analyse all the data and answer all the questions but we managed to do it pretty well. Overall, I enjoyed Maths Extension last term. - Ben
BIMSA
By Valerie
Last term, I participated in the Melbourne University Math and Statistics project, titled BIMSA. My project was to survey and find out the different opinions on the answer of 6/3(3-1)/2(2+2), then present it in a document. Each time I got a different answer, I modified the equation so it would ultimately lead to that answer. I learned more about eqations, processes and brackets. I would have organised my time better if I had redone it and would have tried to access a bigger sample space. Overall, the project was enjoyable and I loved working on it. - Valerie
Heads or Tails
By Lachie and Liam
Lachie and I were accepted into the Maths Extension Group. We work on Wednesday afternoon from 2:20pm until the end of the day on a project of our choice. Last term, Lachie and I worked on a task from the University of Melbourne. It was called ‘Heads or tails’. We worked on it for the whole of Term 2 and finally submitted our project. We had to investigate physical coin tosses, software generated tosses and imaginary coin tosses. We created graphs to present our findings. It was challenging and fun.
Maths News
Congratulations to our new Maths Leaders!!!
- Kirralee
- Liam
- Frances
I am so excited to work with our Maths Leaders for the rest of the year, raising the profile of Maths even more at our school.
FAMILY MATHS CHALLENGE
This Week's Family Maths Challenge is brought to you by our new Maths Leader, Liam!!
There are 73 pieces of chocolate in the bag. How could you sort them out to make it easier for someone to count them?
Extra challenge: How many different ways can you sort them out?
Anna Hendy
St John's Mathematics Leader