Wantirna College Newsletter

 

Maths News

Welcome to Maths

Maths Boost

 

The great team of Maths Teachers run Maths Boost every Tuesday 3:30-4:30 in Rees House.  This is an opportunity for students to:

  • catch-up with missed learning
  • get help with topics that they are struggling with
  • a place to study alone or with a study group where you can access teachers, if required
  • develop summary sheets/logbooks
  • use the internet to access Mathspace
  • play maths games – such as Monopoly, Rummikub, Uno, Yahtzee, Rubik’s Cubes

Calculators

 

Year 7-10 students should have access to a scientific calculator for use in maths classes, at home and during assessments. 

We are continuing our trial of Mathematica in Year 9 and extending into Years 8 and 10.  Mathematica is currently a free alternative technology to the hand-held TI nSpire CAS calculator that we have previously used in Years 9 and 10.  We have had some technical issues with the installation of Mathematica during 2018, primarily for students with BYOD devices.  Please watch out for installation instructions on Compass next week, and support your child if they need to install at home.

VCE Maths students will still need to use a TI nSpire CAS calculator.  Students who do not have a CAS calculator are unable to satisfactorily meet Outcome 3 of any of the VCE Maths’ studies, so it is essential that they have regular access to a device both in, and out of class and for assessments.

 

Workbooks/Logbooks/Note taking

 

It is important that all students have at least one book to use for working in their Maths classes.  Students cannot efficiently write Maths methodology on their computers and will need to write by hand on many assessments.  Grid books are more useful than a lined exercise book as students can line up their working and have a starting point for graphs/tables.

Many teachers will provide notes on the whiteboard during whole-class instruction, but it is not expected that students write everything in their books.  Alternative notes should be available on the OneNote, so that students may refer to these during individual study and/or revision time.  We hope that once students have practiced and embedded a skill, they will write fewer summary notes, or they write their own version of notes/examples that make sense to them.

 

 

Mathspace

 

We do NOT use a textbook in Years 7-10.  We ask that ALL students have access to Mathspace – this costs $20 and is purchased through a paywall that will appear on the student’s Mathspace account from March 7 2020.  There is no option to purchase early.  Teachers will use Mathspace to support formative assessment of students to enable them to diagnose where they need to provide support/extend the student in new learning.  It is used as a homework tool to ensure regular skills practice and may also be used to assess students at the end of a topic.  Mathspace also has an online interactive textbook for grades 3 to 12 and because of its adaptive nature, it will suggest topic areas that students need to practice, if they have completed all set work.

 

 

Ms Zoë CAROLAN

Math/Whole School Numeracy Coordinator