2015 School Magazine

YEAR 12 MATHEMATICS C AARTHI SRITHARAN (12M)

YEAR 12 MATHEMATICS A LAURA BAULCH (12L) AND LUCY BARNES (12O) Did you know that 3 out of 2 people have trouble with fractions? We don’t, thanks to Maths A! Being a Maths A student at BGGS has ensured we are prepared for the real world. We have studied financial maths, mapping, and networking amongst many other areas, and have really bonded with our teachers. The classroom dynamic has improved due to our shared classroom, which has allowed us to receive more help and conferencing. Learning maths in a friendly environment has enriched our learning experience.

This year, the senior Mathematics C cohort has been a cohesive group who has aimed to further develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Being one of the smaller cohorts has enabled us to bond together through this demanding but rewarding work. Although we struggled with complex concepts, such as matrices, conics and dynamics, we developed perseverance and felt great satisfaction after tackling difficult problems. Our success was due to the countless hours of study together with the devotion and assistance provided by the teachers.

YEAR 12 MATHEMATICS B VARANYA VASUDEVAN (12W)

Mathematics B has been a highly innovative, intellectually stimulating experience for myself and the entire cohort. To me, the value of Maths B lies not only within the extremely fascinating topic areas covered, but also the skills we acquire, to grapple with and solve challenging problems that will no doubt be beneficial to us in the future. We started the year by extending our understanding of functions and differentiation from Year 11, moving into applied statistical analysis and the new, exciting topic of integration. In Semester Two, we gradually built upon our existing knowledge to investigate optimisation in life-related situations, periodic functions and more advanced integration. A highlight for me this year was when I discovered that I was able to apply the integral of functions to determine an estimate of land area. Such an insight into the practical applications of Maths B helped me further my understanding of its significance in our day-to-day lives.

096

MATHAPATTA SOOBIN LEE (10E) AND ADELINE CHAN (10L) This year, a group of Year 9 and 10 students, accompanied by Mrs Muller and other staff members from the Mathematics faculty, travelled to Marrapatta for two challenging and fascinating days of practical and conceptual maths. It was an excellent learning opportunity beyond the classroom and the girls enjoyed interacting with each other while immersed in the topics of Maths. Year 10s enjoyed learning about the motion of waves, which required quite a few of our eager students to become human pendulums to collect

data for their graphs. Year 9s learnt about graphs, and how they can be used to represent a real situation through the Bungee Barbie activity. Together, we learnt about cryptography, the mathematics of better decision making, fractals and tessellations. When night fell, we took part in the trivia night, which became one of our favourite events of the camp. It was particularly entertaining for us to guess who the teachers were by looking at their baby photos. Overall, Mathapatta was a good break for everyone, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.