Student Leaders show FLAIR in Maths…

Student Leaders show FLAIR in Maths…


Suresh Varsani
Suresh Varsani
Student Leaders show FLAIR in Maths…

Three of our Maths Student Leaders had the privileged experience of joining in with the first part of the Maths Faculty Meeting on Wednesday 25th March 2021.

Coinciding with our exciting Flair Week, Kavya Mehta, Yehen Singankutta and Vikyrthan Kirushnamoorthy spoke to the Maths staff about the implementation of their ideas that would bring even more flair to the Maths Faculty.  Below is an account of the meeting written by the student leaders:

This week is one of the very special events of the Bushey Meads School Calendar as it is the week of Flair and allowing students to reach out of their comfort zone with Flair. But what exactly is Flair Week? And why is it so important? Flair week is when the students and the teachers do things that you wouldn’t usually do in your maths class, for example doing a maths challenge question, or answering riddles. In the previous years, this was called More Able Week, which was for selected students only. However, Flair is an opportunity for everyone to shine and showcase their ability. 

Unfortunately, we were unable to go to different classes and give a full presentation about this to the students due to the COVID restrictions. However, we made sure that this didn’t slow us down. Therefore, as Maths Leaders, we have embraced this occasion and have done several things to mark this unique week.

We took part in a meeting with the faculty, and there we were able to share our ideas about how we could make this week different to engage students even more in maths. We came up with a document of ideas that the teachers were able to look over. We have produced a lot of questions, with ranging difficulty for the students to answer in their class, perhaps as starters or extensions. We have also found many maths jokes and riddles for the electronic display in the maths corridor for students to view and enjoy. Here are some for you to have a look at: 

Q) If I fire a bullet from a gun in a straight line with one hand, and drop a different bullet with my other hand at the same time from the same height, which one would land first?

Answer: They would both land at the same time as gravity acts equally, of course the first bullet would travel a lot further. 

Q) What number bay is the car parked in?

 

Answer: 87, turn the picture around and you would notice the numbers going up in one. 

Possible future projects:

We are planning to make fun mathematical experiments for Flair Week. For example, trying to find out Pi in unique and unconventional ways. For example, a famous mathematician, Matt Parker, calculated an approximation for pi by weighing a circle. Alternatively, you could try calculating how many handshakes you need to handshake everyone in a certain group size. Try finding a pattern! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngj0a57Rlb0&list=PLhtC92GarkjyYbxI3-4qzIWIRbZaw4wuP&index=9 (link to Matt Parker’s video of approximating pi)

Overall we really enjoyed this week and we hope you all did too! It’s never too late to show flair! 

 

Thank you Kavya Mehta, Yehen Singankutta Arachchilage and Vikyrthan Kirushnamoorthy 

Well done to these very talented Mathematicians for all that they are doing to make maths even more fun within the BMS community!

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