Mathematics

Many of our parents and staff will remember the struggle that was having to move out of the comfort of our lounge suites to change the television channel. I remember having many arguments with my brother, us both shouting, “No you change it! I changed it last time!”, only for us both left watching another episode of Sale of the Century because we were too stubborn and too lazy to change the channel!

But our childhood wasn’t all doom and gloom and guessing 'which famous face held the $25 money card?' Soon enough we would upgrade our television to one with a remote control and our arguments no longer centred around who would get up to change the channel, but, who was granted the power and privilege of holding the almighty remote control.

It’s amazing how much technology has changed, not only since I was a child, but in the last five years. With these changes comes a lot of unpredictability and this emphasises the importance of teaching students, not only subject content, but also skills like critical and creative thinking.

Currently, our Year 8 students are having to use their mathematical skills and knowledge as well as their critical and creative thinking skills to develop a container that will hold one packet of popcorn. It seems simple enough, but I assure you, it is quite a challenging task! They are learning to problem-solve, communicate, work together, work independently, reflect, persist, design and create. They are engaged and they are learning more than just the Mathematics involved.

Earlier this term, our Year 7 students completed a Statistics Project that focused on student feedback from the Year 7 Camp at Somers. Students not only learnt how to summarise and display data, but they were also involved in writing the survey questions and developing the Google form. Students filtered and sorted the data, and then analysed and presented their findings on things such as 'What was the most popular activity?' to 'What was the best meal on camp?'. The best part was, the managers of the camp wanted to know what the students’ main findings were. 

Throughout the year we will be introducing more projects and tasks like this in the junior years so that we can develop their critical and creative thinking skills. We want students to learn how to apply their mathematical skills in a range of contexts and how the Mathematics they are learning in class can apply to the real world. We want to encourage our students to think and persist with challenges and to understand that it’s not something they can’t do, it is just something they can’t do yet. 

So, just like a contestant on 'Sale of the Century' aiming to win the cash jackpot and the car, persistence (and a sense of accomplishment) is key.  

Karen McMullen

Learning Leader: 

Mathematics