Mathematics

ACER’s Global Academic Challenge was held for the first time this year and offers higher-performing students in Years 4, 6 and 8 the opportunity to attempt the kinds of questions sat by students in international schools around the world. ACER Senior Research Fellow Frances Eveleigh, who led the development of the challenge, shares some of the insights in this article.

When you think about the last time you travelled on an airplane, did you wonder whether there could be a more efficient way of getting passengers on and off the aircraft? It is this question that was considered by participants in the 2022 International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM²C).

In her latest video for Teacher, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares the resources for two activities she has implemented in her classroom to engage students when learning about Pythagoras’ theorem.

With the growing use of STEM across various industries in Australia, how can we ensure equitable opportunities and pathways for all students? How can schools build successful partnerships with industry specialists to rethink STEM education? In this article, we outline five further readings which explore STEM education in Australia.

With plenty of ‘get rich quick’ hype circulating around social media, and well-marketed trading apps luring people in to investing, it’s important to understand cryptocurrency. In this context, schools and teachers have an important role to play. Here, Dr Carly Sawatzki, Dr Jill Brown and Peter Saffin explore how teachers can understand students’ learning needs in this area.

In her latest video for Teacher, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares two activities she uses in her classroom to help students understand, and build connections between, 2D shapes and 3D shapes.

Student engagement in Maths is becoming increasingly important in Australia with the demand for skilled graduates in STEM industries growing. Here we speak to researcher Dr Maaike Wienk about new data showing a decline in Year 12 Maths participation, and what schools can do about it.

‘Children with dyscalculia lack basic number sense, which affects every aspect of their ability to process numbers including performing arithmetic operations, understanding fractions and algebra.’ Rachel Parker, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, gives an introduction to the neurological condition dyscalculia, including the signs, diagnostic tools and evidence-based ways to support students.

Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three fun classroom activities she uses with her students to help engage her students in learning algebra: Solve Me Mobiles, Digit Disguises and combining like terms.

In her first video for 2022, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three engaging activities for teaching lower secondary students about directed number. She also shares some resources and worksheets.