Mathematics

Mathematics Update Bentleigh East

The Maths Learning area has had a great start to the year with many activities and initiatives taking place. 

Some of these include:

Accelerated Mathematics Program

This year saw the continuation of the Accelerated Mathematics Program (AMPED). Students in Year 8 have taken on the Accelerated Maths program. These students have been averaging above 85% in their mainstream maths studies and are now completing a course that is 12 months ahead of mainstream maths! Students in Year 7 can qualify (>85%) for AMPED next semester!

Pi Day

March 14 is the official day for Pi Day derived from the common three-digit approximation for the number Pi, 3.14.  Pi is the number found when we divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter. To celebrate Pi Day students were asked to memorise as many decimal places of Pi as they could.

Well done to the following students who were the winners of the Pi Day Competition. They each received a pie from the canteen as their reward.

Darren Carvalho 376 decimal places! New Bentleigh East Campus record!

Dario Le 221

Ronny Seoud 62 

Vincent Mok 62

Josh Stuart 39 

Aaron Roberts 36

Ed Brown with 26 

Jakob Savic 20 

Oscar Balsillie 20

Oscar Del Castillo 20

The Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge

Students at Bentleigh East Campus participated in the Bebras Challenge. The Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge started in Australia in 2014 and is now run through CSIRO Digital Careers.

Bebras was founded in 2004 by Professor Valentina Dagiene from the University of Vilnius, Lithuania. Bebras began with 3470 student participants from 146 schools and has now grown to almost 60 countries with over 1.6 million students participating each year! 

The goal of the Bebras Challenge is to promote computational thinking skills in a way that highlights student abilities.

The challenge is made up of 15 questions ranging in difficulty. The students in Years 7 to 10 have 45 minutes to complete the challenge. The challenge is open twice a year for two weeks. Students can complete the challenge at any time within the two week challenge period.

Bebras is the Lithuanian word for beaver and was chosen because beavers endeavour for perfection in their everyday activities. They are known to be hard working and intelligent, just like our students!

Mathematics After School Help Club

The Maths Tutoring Club runs afterschool every Wednesday to help improve student’s mathematical understanding. Thank you to the generous Maths teachers, in particular, Mr Fotios Koutsogiannopoulos for giving up their time, to help the students, and to the students for making an effort to improve. 

The Naplan testing of our Year 7 and 9 students will be against national benchmarks and is coming up in May.

I would like to thank our hard-working Maths team who have led and inspired our students to engage and improve in Mathematics. 

Remember, Maths is everywhere!

Andrew Davis 

Mathematics Learning Area Leader