Maths

Micro -Mathematicians visit Parkdale Secondary College.

On the 14th of November, our high achieving Year 7 and Year 8 Maths classes were privileged to have a Maths sessions run by PhD Mathematicians from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne.

The Year 8 Maths class were given a game to play. They were given objects that were to be arranged in 3 piles. In pairs, each player could take 1, 2 or 3 objects. The person who removes the last object wins the game. After playing this game and trying to come up with strategies, the Mathematicians guided the students to come up with a strategy using binary numbers! The class had a glimpse into a branch of Mathematics called Combinatorial Game Theory.

Next it was the Year 7’s turn. One of the presenters went through a time line of when significant Mathematical work and theories occurred. This was to highlight a relatively new branch of Maths, called Bijections, and to reveal to the students that even today there are Mathematicians currently developing new theories. Bijections became the focus of the session. Students were given a problem to solve to see how many paths they could take in a lattice. Working in groups to come up with many different solutions. They were then introduced to another similar problem and then to binary numbers.  Even Fibonacci numbers were used. Combining all of this led to the concept of bijections. Binary sequences, lattice paths and climbing steps – all interlinked and Maths was used to make the connections.

Both classes had a great time working in teams and enjoyed solving problems using Mathematics and seeing where Mathematics can be applied in the real world!

Australian Maths Competition

Congratulations to the 24 students who participated in the Australian Maths Competition in 2024. It is always great to see students take up the challenge and extend themselves beyond what happens in the classroom. This year, we had 6 students (listed below) receive a Distinction or High Distinction result placing them in the top 20% or 3% of the State respectively. 

A special mention to Thomas Richardson, who received the highest result in the school for Parkdale Secondary.