Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2017

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BEYOND CLASSROOM MATHEMATICS

Yu-Zhen (Eva) Seet (9B) and Camilla Bastow (9H) at Mathapatta

AUTHOR Dr Peter Jenkins Director of Mathematics

One of the most valuable aspects of Mathapatta is that students are developing their mathematical thinking in an environment that fosters risk-taking, creative approaches to solving problems and team-work. This falls very much in line with the life-wide learning goal in our School’s Strategic Design 2016-2019. Indeed, feedback from girls who have attended the camp is often focused on how much they enjoyed working with their friends towards a common goal, without the pressure of an exam to worry about. Since the introduction of Mathapatta, the Mathematics Faculty has also introduced a variety of ‘out-of-classroom’ experiences, collectively known as ‘Sigma Maths’, designed to enrich the learning of interested mathematics students of all Year levels. The Sigma Maths programme includes more than twenty different individual and team- based competitions run at various universities and schools in Brisbane each year, as well as after-school workshops and ‘problems of the week’ in which students electronically submit a solution to a challenging problem before the end of each week. Naturally, none of these learning experiences are possible without a team of teachers who genuinely love mathematics and understand how such experiences can help ignite a similar passion in our students.

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF A MATHEMATICS TEACHER IS THE ABILITY TO INSPIRE A PASSION FOR MATHEMATICS IN THEIR STUDENTS. ONCE THIS HAPPENS, A STUDENT’S CURIOSITY DRIVES THEIR LEARNING, AND THEY CRAVE THE CONSTANT REWARD OF NEW IDEAS MAKING SENSE, EVEN WHEN THE PATH TO THIS UNDERSTANDING IS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING. In the classroom, we all do our best to inspire our students; however, there are many fascinating and worthwhile mathematical ideas outside the curriculum that we unfortunately do not have time to explore in our lessons, and yet help to spark students’ curiosity. The annual ‘Mathapatta’ camp, held early in Term II at Marrapatta, provides an ideal environment for interested students to learn about such ideas. Mathapatta is a two-day camp for girls in Years 9 and 10 who have a particular interest in mathematics. It was an initiative developed in 2010 by Mathematics teacher, Mrs Jenny Winter, and former Mathematics teacher, Mr Rick Bowman, and has been refined over the subsequent years under the leadership of Mrs Judy Muller and Mrs Lee Mazzaglia (both current Mathematics teachers) with the help and support of the entire Mathematics Faculty and Marrapatta staff. The camp consists of a number of a sessions on a variety of interesting mathematical topics; some of these sessions extend ideas encountered in the classroom, including linear and non-linear functions, geometry and trigonometric modelling. Others are introductions into fascinating areas of mathematics outside the curriculum such as Cryptography, Game Theory, Propositional Logic and Linear Programming. Several sessions each year are based outdoors, and all are designed to be challenging, useful and fun.

Portia Ward (10W), Nigella McAuliffe (10L), Matina Samios (9W), Nadia Robertson (9L)

WINTER ISSUE / 2017