Events

There was much excitement at Covenant Christian School to celebrate Pi-Day. This is becoming a regular fixture on the calendar. There were some students and some even more excited teachers looking forward to having a go at some group problem-solving activities in Mathematics today all in honour of circles and that wonderful number Pi (π = 3.1415926535897932384626433832….)


And so we celebrated the festival of all things circles one day early this year! If you didn’t know, Pi Day (π = 3.14…..) is celebrated on the 14th of March. (For the record, we know this is the US way of writing the date, but unfortunately the Aussie Pi-Day (22/7) falls in the middle of our July school holidays this year.) In any case – who needs a reason to eat yummy desserts?!

Our Year 8, 9 and 12 Mathematics classes had a wonderful time working in groups to complete some fun problem-solving activities, and then enjoyed eating some Pie and Cheesecake afterwards. The students saw the relevance of what they were learning in class in a practical context, learned how to work in a team, and had a good time doing it. The students were sent home with some tasks to complete over the weekend as well. A number of teachers also took on the challenge in what was a most enjoyable Friday! Can’t wait for next year…

Mr P Muddle (on behalf of the Mathematics Faculty)

On Tuesday October 21, a group of year 10 and year 8 students embarked on a “Mathematics in the City” excursion. We met at Manly, caught the ferry into town, and started our day with an exercise aimed at calculating the cost of running a car to the city every day for work. We looked at the architecture of the Opera House and also the changes in building design in the Rocks area since the time of settlement, before moving on to Darling Harbour. The students had the task of finding our way around the city throughout the day and tested their skills in reading timetables and maps.

Next

We had morning tea at Darling Harbour and tried to estimate the travelling distance in one year of the carousel. We had an interesting discussion as to whether the horses on the inside or the outside of the carousel actually travel faster. There was also a giant Connect 4 game at Darling Harbour, where Luke Grose displayed his skills in defeating Mr Muddle!

We moved onto Sydney Wildlife World, where the students had a wonderful time learning about different environments in Australia, and collected data in order to do some statistical analysis of flora and fauna species in Australia, and also some consumer arithmetic work.

We had some lunch, and calculated how much money could be spent on a holiday in Australia, and how expensive it is to eat out every day!

Our investigation concluded with a traffic survey – where we aimed to estimate the amount of traffic crossing the Sydney Harbour bridge throughout the year.

The students (and teachers!) had a wonderful day – and came home exhausted from all the exercise.
Thanks to Mrs Smithies for organising such a wonderful excursion. It was most enjoyable and a way of using mathematics in the real world.

Mr P Muddle, Mathematics Coordinator.

On Monday October 20, the students of 10M and the Even Start students from Year 8 ran a day dedicated to celebrating the triumphs of the Manly Sea Eagles and to raise money for a very worthy cause – TEAR Australia. Students were allowed to wear Manly colours (for a $1 donation), or another team’s colours (for $2). We also held a wonderfully delicious cake stall with lots of cakes, biscuits and lolly bags.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the day. We were able to raise $220 for TEAR Australia and the students decided to spend the money on a goat, fresh drinking water, food, security, school supplies, vegetable gardens, mosquito nets, tree seedlings, and literacy skills.

Mr Muddle and Mrs Smithies