VCE Vocational Major Numeracy 

Luke Mitchell 

Teacher - VCE Vocational Major Numeracy Skills

Our VCE Unit 3 Vocational students recently visited landmarks in Melbourne’s CBD including Federation Square, Princess Theatre and Melbourne Central to complete tasks related to their Numeracy Skills studies.  Vocational Major studies focus on applied learning, so students took their skills into the 'real' world for the opportunity to see how their learning links into 'real' life situations.

Students have been studying Shape, and this subject requires them to identify and classify common two and three-dimensional shapes and then to determine the reflectional and rotational symmetry of these shapes. The excursion was a great opportunity to see how shapes are commonly used and manipulated in architecture and design. 

The day started at Federation Square where students were given the opportunity to consider the architecture of the building, then to draw and explain how this example links to their studies. Students used estimation strategies to determine the number of triangular panels present on one wall face, testing their numeracy skills and challenging them to apply these skills in situ.

Following this,  the group walked on to the Princess Theatre. At this location, students were required to draw the front of Princess Theatre using reflectional symmetry. It was great to see the students identifying the many shapes evident in the architecture and applying this knowledge to assist them in completing drawings. After this, we travelled to Melbourne Central where we estimated the height of the Shot Tower and looked at the patterns used to build the cone-shaped roof. 

As we moved around the CBD, students were charged with finding further evidence of the application of our area of study.  The excursion was an exciting chance for students to test their skills and understanding outside of the classroom, to enrich and extend their learning.

Eva K & Alicia L

Year 12

This excursion was designed for us to see how architecture uses different  shapes to create the structure and design. We used skills we learned in the classroom such as reflection and rotation to help us identify patterns on the buildings in Melbourne. 

We thought it was really fun to have a school excursion in the CBD because we don’t get a lot of opportunities to get out of the classroom. 

Omar A & Burhan K

Year 12

We went to the city to look at the architecture and shapes on different buildings.  We sketched multiple buildings to get a rough idea of measurements and shapes. 

We used different types of maths like identifying common shapes and estimating heights of buildings.  This has inspired us [to use this experience] for our assessment task, to produce a plan for adding to or re-designing buildings within our school.