On Wednesday Nathan Chong, Sebastian Wong and Vishay Modi from Year 6 attended an awards ceremony for the NSW Mathematics Association’s Investigating with Mathematics competition. These three boys competed in the Year 6 small group category and placed 2nd in the state.

The Investigating with Mathematics competition was an external event where students explored, posed and solved ‘real-life’ situations and problems about Mathematics. This was the first year Newington participated in this competition.

Throughout term 2, students met once a week to design, create and solve their investigation. We had a wide range of mathematical investigations. Below are the investigations which were submitted this year:

• Ryan Low (Year 3) investigated different ways of spending $100 at Luna Park. He was even lucky to test out his findings with his family.
• Liam Sioutas, Deyan Nikolic, Bryant Diep, Marcus Taylor, and Frank O’Halloran (Year 3) explored how to power Wyvern with solar panels. They used rooftop measurements from above the Year 6 centre and researched the best solar panel for energy efficiency and power.
• Jacob Lim, Seth Bougradous, Bryn Hunt and Runjeet Khara (Year 3) conducted a data survey about the online Maths game ‘Prodigy’. They surveyed each boy in Year 3 and analysed the data to find out how much time Year 3 was spending on Prodigy.
• Carter Tocknel, Angus Baker Wood, Will Illiopolous and Alex Nicholias (Year 4) explored how much rubbish waste was created at Wyvern in Term 2 and used this information to calculate how many bins we need around the playground.
• Rhys Howard-Jones, Abbas Beydoun, Ben Macdessi and Ben Chau (Year 5) conducted an extensive analysis of Pascal’s triangle.
• Nathan Chong, Vishay Modi and Sebastian Wong (Year 6) researched the amount of sugar in popular breakfast cereals as well as common sweets.
• Patrick Jones, Jacob Haddad and Angus Thompson (Year 6) compared the prices of common items between big supermarket chains to local, independent stores and analysed the profit margin between the two.

Congratulations to all students. All other investigations received a participation for their efforts.

I look forward to continuing Newington’s participation in the Investigating with Mathematics competition. It is an fantastic opportunity to help build future mathematicians at Wyvern.

The integral role of Mathematics

Mathematics is an integral part of our everyday lives; therefore, our Mathematics teaching needs to be diverse and relevant to help set our students up for success in life. Authentic, real-world problems provide students with an opportunity to understand, analyse and propose solutions to current social, economic, environmental and health issues. I encourage all students to make links between the world around them and mathematics. It is this skill which will sustain and create a passion for mathematics and shape innovative, critical thinkers who can adapt to any situation.  

Ciara Harding
Year 6 Teacher