SOME of the Hunter’s brightest young minds explored the wonders of numeracy at the Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Challenge held in Newcastle on Tuesday, 25 November.
The 20 Hunter students – including Luca Melia from St Brigid’s Primary School in Raymond Terrace – joined 14 other Year 5 and 6 students from across NSW at University of Newcastle’s iconic NUspace facility, celebrating the achievements of this year’s Newcastle Permanent Primary School Maths Competition winners and District Award recipients.
Newcastle Permanent spokesperson Paul Juergens said the challenge inspired the students to dream big.
“The Newcastle Permanent Maths Challenge is about taking maths off the paper and into games, hands-on activities and interactions,” Mr Juergens said.
“This year, almost 17,000 students from across more than 350 schools participated in our maths competition, showing interest in STEM activities such as these growing.
“We’re all about helping our local communities thrive through education and we love watching students thrive in our Maths Challenge.”
This year’s challenge was designed by Newcastle Permanent’s Maths Competition Director, Dr Peter Howley.
Dr Howley is a national and international leader and award winning academic, educator and practitioner in statistics, systems thinking, process improvement, and integrated STEM.
Also the creator and coordinator of many leading national STEM education initiatives and resources for schools, and a mathematics curriculum officer for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, Dr Howley said the challenge was a fitting reward for the elite students across the region.
“Competitions like this give students a unique opportunity to participate, compete, challenge themselves, and engage in new experiences that support the developments of new perspectives and interests beyond the school environment,” Dr Howley said.
“Students were challenged with interactive activities and quizzes and heard from leading professionals about the way statistics and mathematics are used to support fields including healthcare, medical and forensic anthropology.
“I have a long-standing passion in driving school and community engagement in mathematics, statistics and integrated STEM, and I’m excited to explore new initiatives to build on the strong foundation of this long-standing competition and support a broader range of students.”
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