| Twelve
BRGS teachers heaved a collective sigh of relief as they
were rescued from a sinking dinghy in the Menai Straits recently.
However, the rescue wasn’t made by the Coastguard but
by 120 year 8 pupils who had
paddled out on twelve self made rafts!
The rescue was the culmination of a
series of problem solving activities the pupils completed
as part of a three-day
maths based residential on the island of Anglesey. They
had solved problems, both indoors and outdoors, and had
earned points that they used in an auction to buy the raw
equipment to build their rafts. Working as teams they designed,
built and launched their rafts to make the rescues.
The residential was planned to allow the pupils to develop
their wider mathematical abilities in a range of contexts
outside the classroom. There were also puzzles that required
the application of logic, obstacles to overcome by thoughtful
strategies and problems that pupils had to solve using
quick thinking. Head of Mathematics, Paul Reeves,
stated, “We wanted
to take the opportunity to develop the skills of our pupils
outside the confines of timed lessons and classrooms. The
residential fits perfectly with the aims of the new Key
Stage 3 curriculum being introduced in September 2008,
where it speaks about applying mathematics in a wide range
of contexts - including managing resources, assessing risk,
problem-solving and decision-making.”
The residential is one of a number of regular activities
the mathematics department has launched to mark BRGS being
awarded specialist maths and computing college status. |
