Maths trip to University of Kent
On Tuesday 19th April, myself and twelve Year 9 students took a trip to the University of Kent in Canterbury to get an idea of University life, and investigate where mathematics can be used in the real world.
As a new teacher to The Robert Napier School, I was exceptionally impressed by the students I took on the trip and their enthusiasm towards the activities involved.
Miss Taylor
This is what two of the students who came on the trip said about the day:
As we got to the University of Kent, we went inside the building and were given a wrist band and taken to the main lecture theatre where three other schools were waiting. Here we got told a little bit about the day and what we were going to do.
Our first lesson was ‘Game Show Theory’. Here we learnt about probability and how it was used in game shows such as ‘Golden Balls’.
In the second lesson we learnt to juggle. We discovered the number patterns that were involved and how you could write different juggling styles as a set of numbers, knowing that they would only work if the digits added up to 12.
After this we had lunch. During this time, we were allowed to wander around the campus and discover what it was like to be at University. After we eat lunch, we then went to play with Play Doh were we learnt how to turn a donut into a cup without breaking the donut shape.
Finally, our last lesson was code breaking where we looked at different number sequences and puzzles. We also looked at a mind teaser where there were two people, Alice and Bob, who both had a padlock they could open themselves and a message in a box. Alice wanted to get a message to Bob with her padlock on, so no one could get into it. The problem was Bob would not be able to open it. Why don’t you think about it?
I really enjoyed the day and would like to do it again.
Thomas Barry, Ellis Dolan