From the week beginning Monday 14 March – yes, Pi Day (3/14/16) – the Newington Maths Department took their maths classes on an adventure to shake up some stereotyped ideas about the subject. The week-long festival featured talks and activities both in and out of class and was highly successful. Black and White sat down with Head of Maths Mr Doug Vass to talk about the problems and solutions the boys came up with and how the week shares a close tie with recent developments in brain science.

What kind of activities did the boys participate in during Maths Week?

During lessons the boys were challenged about their ‘Mathematical Mindset’, a term used to describe an educational program devised by Stanford University Professor Jo Boaler. Prof Boaler’s theory is inspired by new developments in brain science which believes the brain is plastic and can be rewired through sustained effort and stimulus. Thereby, the belief that you are not good at maths can be disproved through a change in ‘mindset’.

The week was about inspiring students to see maths as something broad, interesting and visual that requires deep thinking as opposed to simply completing a series of exercises in a textbook. 

Before they began, students completed a survey to find out their mindset and learned important growth mindset approaches to help them feel confident, try harder, persist with open and difficult problems and embrace mistakes and challenges as they came across them. The tasks were accessible to all students and tailored to suit all levels. 

What was one or two of the most engaging activities you did and why do you think it was so successful?

On the Thursday, Year 9 and Year 10 boys were treated to a Maths Olympics Comedy Show from Australia’s Numeracy Ambassador, Simon Pampena. It was an hour of ‘mathutainment’ which left the boys in stitches. Simon also ran a demo of the 1988 Mathematics Olympics (Olympiad) question which one of our most gifted Mathematics students had not even seen. 

Lastly during lunchtimes all week we ran competitions for any boys who were keen to participate:

• Monday – 24Game (a 4-digit game where you race against your peers to form the number 24 using the four operations and the 4-digits given)
• Tuesday – a mental math app developed right here in Australia, called “Quick Math”. It is a speed challenge for mental operations on an iDevice
• Wednesday – a KenKen challenge increasing from 3×3 through to difficult 6×6 puzzles
• Thursday – Simon Pampena Olympiad workshop
• Friday – packed house of 44 boys in the Gaussian society, watching Eric Sheng’s proof of the Pigeon Hole principle for problem solving

Simon Pampena’s show was definitely the most engaging simply because of his energy and humour. The lesson on number visuals from the inspirational math set was also quite enlightening for my Year 7s. They had never really discussed or heard views from their peers about how they “see” how different number patterns grow.

How long did it take to prepare Maths Week and where did some of the ideas originate from?

The planning started six months prior and involved booking shows and time slots in the busy Newington calendar. In terms of preparing other activities this took several weeks. Myself and the maths department worked especially hard to generate ideas and activities that we thought would be practical and interesting to the boys.

What was the most valuable thing you think the boys took away from the week?

Hopefully the most valuable thing is that we raised the creativity flag for Mathematics so that students don’t see the subject in black and white.  In reality those of us who know and love Mathematics understand it is full of depth and beauty but this is often lost by students when it is broken up into skills and concepts.

What was the most valuable thing you learnt, as a teacher?

The most valuable thing I learnt is that everyone loves a good nerdy Maths joke (or T-shirt).  But seriously I learned the importance of making space in the curriculum to be creative, to go off syllabus, and to give boys the chance to have fun both in and out of the classroom with Mathematics.

Look out next year, the whole campus will be wearing nerdy T-shirts for Maths Week 2017!