LSEF Maths Masterclass for Year 6 Students
As part of the London Schools Excellence Fund, The Compton School in partnership with Finchley Catholic High School recently held two maths masterclasses for strong Year 6 mathematicians from schools in the Barnet and Haringey areas. They were ably supported by Year 8 students from the The Compton and Year 9 students from Finchley Catholic.
Over two dates in February and March participants worked together on engaging and inspiring geometry with the help of very popular resources, in the form of magnetic polygons, supplied by Polydron.
Students from St John's Primary School took part in the first session in February at Finchley Catholic High School along with students from Dollis Junior School. Here is what Ellie from St John's said:
At the Masterclass, we experimented with a range of magnetic shapes to try to make the Platonic solids. My partner and I managed to make four out of five of these. We made the tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron and the dodecahedron. We had lots of fun making the Platonic solids and experimenting on which ones would work and which ones would not look the same on all sides. It was quite difficult trying to count all of the faces, especially on the dodecahedron!
The students wore pyjamas in celebration of World Book Day
Ivana, Kenn, Meera and Jared in Year 8 were great ambassadors in hosting the March session at The Compton School. Welcoming The Annunciation Catholic Junior School and Lea Valley Primary School, they were very supportive and helpful to all of the visiting students and the teachers. Here is what they had to say:
During World Book Day, twenty year 6 students - in their pyjamas - participated in a mathematics masters class on geometry.
The activities were based around the three mathematicians Plato, Euler, and Mobius, engaging all ages and areas of the brain. Each student learnt phenomenal facts about the Mobius strip (romance in mathematics) Platonic solids (5 sophisticated solids) and the seven bridges of Konigsberg (a dilemma impossible to solve theoretically) all utilised throughout high level mathematics.
Whilst assisting the class, we were fascinated by the students' keenness to discover the new areas of maths. In addition, the teachers presenting the session delivered the lesson captivatingly and all participants visibly enjoyed activities.
We would like to thank all of the primary school students and teachers for participating in the sessions. We would also like to thank Polydron for supplying fantastic resources to help make both sessions so successful. We look forward to the final LSEF Maths Masterclass in April!
