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Maths Inspiration Trip

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Mrs K Coldwell, STEM Leader: Mathematics, writes:

On Thursday 5th December, a select group of Year 11 and Year 12 students made their way to the Phoenix Theatre in the West End for one of the annual Maths Inspiration shows. With the set of the hit musical “Come From Away” as a backdrop, the group of Stanborough students alongside several hundred others from other schools heard short talks from four of the biggest names in maths communication.

We arrived just in time to hear Matt Parker (author of “Adventures in the Fourth Dimension” and “Humble Pi” as well as TV, radio and YouTube regular) introducing the first talk, which was delivered by Rob Eastaway, also a well-known author of popular maths books, who spoke about “Maths on the Back of an Envelope”.  He explored a class of problems called Fermi problems (after another mathematician) and asked questions such as “How many sausages will be eaten in Britain today?”  This was followed by Hannah Fry (also a best-selling author and regular on television and radio) giving us a preview of this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on “Secrets and Lies” which will be presented by her on Boxing Day, December 27th and December 28th. All will be televised on BBC 4 at 8pm each evening. The final talk was given by Colin Wright on the topic of “Patterns and Predictions” and involved lots of humour and juggling. At the end of the day, we felt privileged to have seen so many gifted maths communicators in one place demonstrating the usefulness and intrigue of
different areas of mathematics.

“Very enjoyable – the speakers were entertaining, and the maths was suitably mind-boggling.” Annabel Dunstan, 11A

“I’m inspired to learn how to juggle, but I probably won’t.” Jack Moylan, 11O

 

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Maths Challenges

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Mrs Coldwell, STEM Leader, Mathematics, writes:

Stanborough have participated in a number of mathematical challenges over the term. This started with the Mathematical Olympiad for Girls, taken by Kono Washio (Y13) and Jodie Garg (BHG, Y12) back on 8th October. This was a 2.5 hour paper requiring full written solutions to a set of five very challenging questions. Kono and Jodie each got full marks in one question (and not the same question either!) and picked up a few marks in other questions to achieve very respectable scores overall.

The Senior Maths Challenge followed about a month later on the 7th November. The challenge is designed for sixth formers but a number of talented younger mathematicians also took part. Excellent performances by Joshua Long (Y12) and Jack Moylan (Y11) earned them both Gold certificates and Best in Year. Joshua was also named Best in School. Both Joshua and Jack qualified for the Kangaroo follow-on round which took place on the occasional day Friday 29th November and they forfeited their well-earned lie-in to take part. Silver certificates in the Senior Maths Challenge went to Rory Satterley-Hull and Behram Printer, who were joint Best in Year for Year 13; and also to Thomas Cranham, Luke Mawer and Kono Washio in Year 13; James Mann, Charlie Earnshaw and Jack Hamer in Year 12;  Thomas Farran in Year 11 and Joshua Imafidon in Year 10. Bronze certificates were awarded to Mattia Salsi, Louisa Jennings and Harry Cross in Year 13; Aaron Johnson, Amy Williamson and Florence Spreyer in Year 12; Charles Greasby and Jack Hadley in Year 10 and Aidan Wadley in Year 8.

All students had the opportunity to enter various competitions during Maths Week England from 11th– 16th November. Year 12 Core Maths students entered a competition using data visualisation to illustrate the climate impact of Christmas jumpers, with entries from Helena Rosario and Lewis Budd being particularly imaginative and thought-provoking. Students also completed Maths Week quizzes in their tutor groups, with especially strong entries from Brocket and Knebworth.

Finally, the Senior Team Maths Challenge took place on 27th November at Merchant Taylors’ School in Middlesex. The team of Behram Printer, Kono Washio, Charlie Earnshaw and Sean Davies produced excellent results in the first two rounds: the group questions and the crossnumber. Although they found the shuttle round harder, they still finished in a very respectable 5th place among a strong field of 20 teams. This turned out to be the highest place of any fully comprehensive state-funded school in the competition. Well done to all of our talented mathematicians.

 

Multiple Maths 2019 4w

STEM – Multiple Maths Challenges

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