Numeracy

Numeracy in Maths

This week we are going to a more obvious use of Numeracy – in a Mathematics subject. The Year 9 students completed a CAT which asked them to complete various tasks involving Numeracy.

Some of the tasks on the Year 9 Problem Solving CAT were:

• Naming all the shapes involved in a game of basketball
• Estimating the length, width and area of a basketball court
• Estimating the height of the basketball ring
• Calculating the difference between a person’s specified height and the basketball ring
• Calculating the length of a basketball match with time outs, fouls and injury breaks
• Measuring the distances of the length, width, semicircle of the 3 point line, measuring the circumference of the center circle
• From the measured distances, students apply the area formulas to calculate specified areas
• Then there were advanced questions involving movements around the court and calculations, surface area and volume questions.

Yeneo Pousoulis took us into his outdoor classroom to observe students using trundle wheels to measure some of the required distances specified on the CAT.

Wheelers Hill wants to develop the critical thinking and problem solving skills students need for the 21st century workplace. Some CAT’s will involve students recalling information to apply in a test style format, and other CAT’s will be low floor, high ceiling tasks that will ask students to use a range of problem solving and reasoning skills and move through the task in difficulty to their highest level. These tasks are important to develop our student’s thinking skills and develop resilient learners.

Michelle Galli

Numeracy Learning Specialist