First Maths Venture held

Some 80 Form 3 students in State, Church and independent schools recently took part in the first Maths Venture organised by the Mathematics Section within the Curriculum Management and eLearning Department in conjunction with the University’s Department of Mathematics, Science and Technical Education.

The aim of the venture was to give students the opportunity to experience mathematics beyond the confines of the classroom, to apply the maths in various problem-solving tasks, to show that maths can be fun and to emphasise collaborative work.

It consisted of three activities held over two days. The first consisted of a Maths trail in Mdina. In this activity, groups of four students had to complete a number of maths tasks in different locations. These tasks required students to make use of knowledge from different topics in the Maths SEC Syllabus.

To introduce a cross-curricular element, some activities included tasks that required knowledge of Maltese history.

In the second activity, students had to solve a challenging mathematical problem that required them to use their knowledge of probability and ratio.

The third activity consisted of two People Maths activities in which the students had to use their knowledge of maths to solve various non-routine mathematical problems.