Thirty six young mathematicians, making up nine teams of the best students from schools around the region converged at St Matthews Catholic Central School on Tuesday 18th of October 2016, participating in the Mudgee Mathematical Minds (M3) challenge.
The students were accompanied by their teachers enjoyed much of the day. The teachers were appreciative of the rarity of such event and highlight the importance of the occasion in equal terms with spelling bees and other educational contests.
After morning tea, the teams started with fun activities moving and tackling problems at a number of stations/tables. Although the problem at each station was quite challenging, the young maths experts did not give in at solving the problems.
After that, the students devised strategies in the group challenge whereby a number of maths problems need to be solved within a certain time.
The students then enjoyed a much needed refreshment and BBQ at lunch time before working on individual speed challenge and cross numbers in a similar fashion to cross words.
The marking and scoring were tabulated by Mudgee Rotarians, Mark Herford and Ross Hearne. The winners for stage 3 are teams from St Matthews, Kandos Public and Rylstone Public schools and the winners for stage 5 are teams from St Matthews and two teams from Mudgee High School.
The winning teams shared total prize money of $2,000, $1,000 and $500 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. They also received trophies and each student received a gold, silver and bronze medal which were presented by representatives from sponsors: Moolarben Coal, KEPCO Bylong Coal, the Rotary Club of Mudgee and the Rotary Club of Mudgee Sunrise.
The organisers consist of teams from the Rotary Club of Mudgee, Mathematics teachers from St Matthews are grateful for the sponsorship and are hoping to continue the event next year.