Maths Games Day

MAV Year 7 Games Day

Eight Year 7 Maths students represented GEC at the Mathematical Association of Victoria’s (MAV) Year 7 Games Day on Monday 18 August. They worked in two teams of four amongst 120 of Melbourne’s best Year 7 Maths students. They were all there keenly volunteering to demonstrate their Maths skills.

The students worked together on team puzzles as well as against directly one-on-one against Year 7 students from other schools. There were four 45-minute games throughout the day.

Game 1 was a Ken Ken puzzle and there were 5 of them. The first 2 were 4 by 4, the third one was a 5 by 5, the fourth one was a 6 by 6 and the fifth one was a 7 by 7. The Ken Ken puzzle was easy at the start but harder at the end.  After we had recess break and they did a raffle. Then we started Game 2. It was a Problem-solving sheet. There were 26 questions, and we split the sheets among the team and worked on different questions. Game 3 was called Honeycomb and it was 1 v 1 against someone from another school. I versed a boy from Mount Scopus College. We tied in both games we played.

Then we had a lunch break and another raffle. After a bunch of running around, we did our final game. First, we had to solve a single question and then give it to one of the Year 11s to check. If we got it wrong, then we could have two more attempts. If we didn’t answer it correctly, then we would not get any points. We continued this procedure until time was up. After they announced third, second and first place getters, we went back to school. Overall, it was very fun and a good experience.

Peggy Meng 7A

My favourite activity was the relay race because the questions were short and using combined thinking was easier.

Nhi 7C

During the Math Games Day, I experienced lots of different games. But to be honest, my favourite one out of all of them was problem solving. This is because I got to do the Sudoku the whole time. I love them and I often do them for fun at home.

Aarohi 7F

It was fun. My favourite activity was the first one, the Ken Ken puzzle, because it was better.

Chenyu 7B

I found it really fun. My favourite puzzle was the Ken Ken. It was really fun to verse other schools.

Johan 7B

The MAV Games Day was a really enjoyable and challenging experience. It consisted of two games (Ken Ken and Honeycomb) and two quizzes, one was structured like a CAT, whereas the other was continuous and you had to complete as many as possible. The questions were really hard and weren’t afraid to give us stuff we wouldn’t know.

Maxi 7F

Our two GEC teams worked together very well. They also achieved Maths results that were very good collaborative efforts. Only three of the thirty teams were given a ranking on the day, so we have no feedback on GEC’s position. For those that really want to know, the top three Year 7 teams at the MAV Games Day were 3rd Tintern Grammar, 2nd Yarra Valley Grammar and 1st Trinity Grammar.

Radcliff Owen

Mathematics Teacher