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Enriching Understanding Through Maths

Enriching Understanding Through Maths

19 August 2022

Problem solving is an essential skill set to have throughout life. At St Catherine’s we provide opportunities for our students to deliberately develop this capacity throughout all their learning.

Within Mathematics, students have had several opportunities to explore and enrich their mathematics education both in, and out, of the classroom. The curriculum is particularly designed to build a solid foundation of understanding in arithmetic, algebra, measurement, geometry, probability, and statistics. Which then opens the door to problem solving. As the girls transition into their senior years, they start engaging with more complex and abstract concepts, some of which are challenging problems and require multi-step processes to solve.

Problem Solving enthusiasts this year have enjoyed several opportunities to engage in their passion for mathematics. Students in Years 7 and 8 participated in the Mathematics Olympiad run by the Australasian Problem-Solving Mathematical Olympiad. Whilst some have also been involved in competitions run by Australian Mathematics Trust such as Kangourou sans Frontiéres, Computational Algorithmic Thinking and the Australian Mathematics Competition. All these programs are intended to stimulate and encourage our girls to become creative problem solvers and it also is quite entertaining!

Our Honours students have been extended outside the School curriculum in the Mathematics Enrichment Program. Students in Year 6 completed problems that include estimation, polyhedra, divisibility, patterns (including Fibonacci numbers), networks and decision-making mathematics as well as base 5 arithmetic, whilst engaging in specific problem-solving techniques.

The Year 7 students tackle problems that involve primes and composites, least common multiples, highest common factors, arithmetic sequences, figurate numbers, congruence, properties of angles and pigeonhole principle. Year 8 students are challenged with activities that require an understanding of geometry with special reference to parallels, similarity, and Pythagoras’ theorem. They are also required to use spreadsheets, Diophantine equations, counting techniques and congruence.

St Catherine’s strives to challenge students, particularly in Mathematics. Problem solving and enrichment within our courses is a deliberate practice that encourages resilience and provides a rich platform for growth as a mathematician.

Students use and develop competencies when they encounter unfamiliar or challenging situations and in turn, they draw and build upon what they already know. In Mathematics, students develop and apply competencies via these experiences.

Problem solving demands us to infer, model, rationalise, reason, and apply knowledge whilst making links between existing information. It is also lots of fun!