It’s been a busy and fun time in the mathematics faculty for the past few weeks. Here is a summary of some of the interesting activities we have recently tackled.

Last term we were involved with Harmony Day where we celebrated diversity in our school, providing very colourful fairy floss for the students (also stay tuned for a more mathematical spin on harmony below..). 

We also had Open Night where we welcomed prospective new students with Sudoku and other fun mathematical challenges. 

This year’s year 7 cohort were introduced with a new approach to homework and extra focus on teaching of numeracy that will assist us in helping them achieve their best in that realm. 

We also continued our hands on approach to teaching Measurement and Geometry with the early years, including teaching surface area by building and deconstructing cubes and cylinders, and modelling Pythagoras theorem with some delectable manipulatives (see image above).

Our Advanced and Extension students have been studying trigonometry, among other things, which is made all the more engaging when they realise that musical notes can be represented by manipulating Sine waves. 

Back to the subject of harmony, an interesting application of the Sine wave, as realized by the prodigious Pythagoras, is that two notes will be particularly harmonious if the period of their sine waves are in a whole number ratio, as our senior students will soon discover.