Gateways 

Ignite Incursion

The word ‘ignite’ is incendiary (in more ways than one) and when it comes to giving students that extra ‘spark’ in Science and Maths, our recent GATEWAYS ‘Ignite’ incursion lit a fire under some of our Gr2-6 students.

So what was ‘Ignite’?

The GATEWAYS Ignite program saw selected students from Years 2-6 involved in specialist Maths and Science workshops, delivered by experts in their field. From Genetics to Network Theory, our students were presented with engaging stories with challenging problems to solve.

The Year 4-6 students used tabular reasoning to sort out a mix-up in the maternity ward. They had to use blood typing and dominant/recessive traits to ascertain which baby belonged to which parents. After successfully sorting out ‘who belonged to who’, their next workshop was all about sorting mathematical data to create Eulerian and Hamiltonian paths in a zoo where the exhibits had become very confused. Even though the content mirrored the basics of a 2016 VCE Maths exam, none of our intrepid zookeepers got lost!

Our Year 2 & 3 scientist-mathematicians put their brains to work on sorting animals in an aquatic zoo. They looked for unions, congruences and exclusivities in mathematically making connections. Then they put on their thinking ‘toque blanche’ (chef’s hat) to sort out the confused orders in a ‘States of Matter’ restaurant. I’m pleased to say that they fitted the bill very well – compliments to the chef!

Throughout the whole Ignite program, I was thrilled to see how engaged the students were, and just how much they enjoyed being challenged in a way that was so different to a regular classroom experience.