Time is fast disappearing

and so much has happened in the realms of mathematics at St Bede’s College so far this year. At the end of last term we saw nearly 200 mathematics staff from across the state using our Auditorium for some Professional Development. The VCE courses are all changing for 2016 and so training was provided to staff as a beginning towards writing new courses and understanding the nuances of the new designs. This certainly remains a work in progress and may explain the slightly more distracted look of your son’s mathematics teacher at the moment.

Also late last term we received results for our students who had entered into the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians. This is a precursor competition for the Mathematics Olympiad which is an international competition. This was our first time entry and was a learning curve for all of us. The boys who entered all did very well. Special congratulations need to go to William Devlin (7.7) for receiving a distinction and to Damian Corral-O’Meara (8.4) and Adam Dingli (9.2) who both received Credits.

Also in the realm of competitions was our annual entry into the Australian Mathematics Competition this term. This is a national competition and has been running for well over 30 years. I do have the results and they are the best we have received for some time. Congratulations to two of our Year 7 students. Both Flynn Morley (7.6) and Marco Verna (7.3) received High Distinctions which places them in the top 1% of students nationwide. An excellent achievement and something of which they should be very proud. A list of all students who received a Distinction or above is below. This places students generally in the top 15% of all students nationwide. Overall, over 25% of our entrants received a Distinction or above. Well done to all who entered both competitions on some really fine results in a difficult competition.

In Term 3 we have had 8 students across Year 7 and 8 competing in the Tournament of Minds Mathematics and Engineering section. Their task was to create a vehicle that could transport a 250ml bottle of water around an S-shaped track. All of this set within a believable storyline and context. There are many limits placed on what the students can and cannot do, their presentation area and the overall cost of the solution. The emphasis being on creativity and recycling of common materials with no motorised or electronics involved, sounds easy but I also forgot to mention that the vehicle must move without them touching it or appearing to control it. We are getting close to our final solution and it is truly a remarkable piece of engineering and dramatic flair that our students have produced. Congratulation to Max Herbold, Kiran Pereira, Ben Ngo, James Thompson, Angus O’Toole, Jake Dunne, William Devlin and James Kalpakoff for what they have achieved so far.

On August 17 our Year 9 Enrichment students headed off to Sidetracked for a day of arduous collecting of data. This involved tedious activities such as Go-Karting and Laser Force sessions. Sometimes it is very hard to get the students motivated for such work! The students bring back loads of real time data and use it to practice all the statistical analysis skills they have developed in their coursework. A good way of taking mathematics out into the real world.

On the 17th July we had our annual Year 7 Mathematics Day. This occurs as close to “PI” day as we can make it. PI is the value that connects ratios within a circle. A quick google search will tell you that it has been calculated to over 100,000,000 digits. This was not a task set for homework. It has an approximate value of 22/7 and this is why we hold our maths competition near the July 22. This is a day of fun maths activities (yes they exist) and the students had a great day of learning how maths can help with many everyday tasks. Congratulations to the students in 7.7 for their victory on the day and to Mr Wilson, their mathematics teacher.

Our VCE students are into their final stretches of covering the actual content. They will be starting revision shortly and their practice exams are scheduled for week two of the upcoming break. I certainly wish them well with all of the work and with their November exams.

High Distinction

Flynn Morley

Marco Verna

Distinction

David Surace

Damon Kelly

William Devlin

Liam Collins

Vikrant Vinodhram

Angus O'Toole

Daniel Mint

Declan Easton

Alex Bedier

Dominic Hinschen

Max Herbold

Mitchell Tsiros

Thomas Mccauley

William Barron

Mr Phil Devlin

Mathematics Coordinator

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