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What makes a mathematician? Qiu Chengtong, the first Chinese-American mathematician to be awarded the Fields Medal, known as the Nobel Prize in mathematics, once commented, “The true essence of maths is not about solving questions, especially not the ones set by others, but to discover research paths, raise worthy questions and blaze a trail of their own.” The inspiration for his remarks on fundamental maths education should put more focus on cultivating pupils’ interest in learning maths and building their maths thinking. 

Since its establishment, the Wellington maths department has launched the Maths Week programme, which, over the years, has led our pupils to realise that maths is everywhere, including problem-solving, π and the maths time unit. Pupils were inspired by the curiosity of creative games and competitions that deepened their understanding of abstract concepts, so they were equipped with the necessary skills to solve practical issues. One of Wellington’s approaches to building the maths thinking of the pupils allows them to grow into outstanding talents to embrace the ever-changing world. 

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Let us look back at our maths week and learn how our inspirational maths team has led Wellington pupils to understand more about Mathematical Careers.  

Primary School

Russell Clarke

Head of Primary Maths

This year’s Maths Week was a resounding success enjoyed by pupils, parents and staff.

The children had a lot of fun learning and testing their mathematical knowledge in various practical situations. Here are some testimonials to this effect:

“I was excited about the ‘bungee egg drop’ because we had to work out how long to make the bungee cord, and we didn’t know if it would work.” (Eason, year 5) 

“I enjoyed going outside during maths lessons, doing sport and measuring our speed, jumping and throwing length.” (Bella, year 5) 

“My favourite thing about Maths Week was measuring the ingredients for our pancakes. We weighed everything carefully and made some delicious snacks.” (Angela, year 4)

Seventy-seven parents also put their maths skills to the test during our parent workshop, and we are proud to say our parents rated the workshop a 4.87 out of 5. It was also an honour for me to hear the extent to which our parents believe in the Wellington approach towards teaching maths; 71% of parents strongly agreed that ‘the Wellington approach to teaching maths benefited their child(ren)’, and the remaining 29% agreed with the statement. 

Maths Week 2022 was a fantastic week for everyone involved. There were fun, challenging mathematical activities. But, most importantly, as it was the focus of this year, our children found out through their experiences how important maths is in many different careers. So this week will help inspire our children during their maths learning and future career choices. 

Senior School

Bradley Dennon 

Head of Mathematics Senior School

Maths week at WCIH is a fantastic opportunity for the Maths Department to share their love for the subject and try to inspire the pupils to see how brilliant it can be. It also provides a platform for teachers to show off their maths knowledge and cement with our pupils how essential maths is in our daily lives. 

This year our theme for maths week is Mathematical Careers. Most of us know that maths is used in our daily lives, but when asked to think of examples, we often cannot think of anything beyond counting money or reading road signs. This week’s goal was to show our pupils careers with a more profound use of maths than expected. 

It is essential in a themed week like this that the pupils can see the link to the curriculum. This makes it feel beneficial and inspires them even more. Throughout the week, our pupils worked on measuring, weighing, perimeter, area, circumference, profit, averages and even tensile strength. These topics appear in the curriculum from year 7 to year 11 and are topics many of our pupils are already very familiar with, just not in the context we gave them.

On Monday, our pupils were learning about maths in fashion design by using pieces of fabric to create a skirt. This involved making the skirt fit specific dimensions of a model, using lots of circle calculations, and then calculating how much profit they wanted to make if they were to sell the skirt.

Maths Week

On Tuesday, we listened to a talk from Dr Di Kang in the theatre. Dr Kang told us how she uses maths daily in her job as a professor of economics. Pupils were learning how important data collection and analysis can be and when we sometimes make links between data that don’t truly exist.

On Wednesday, the pupils learned about maths as a chef by making pancakes. The pupils followed a recipe that required them to scale down the ingredients from 12 to 5 pancakes, then measure and weigh ingredients to make the pancakes with no wasted ingredients at the end.

On Thursday, our pupils were given a choice of learning about maths in artistry or maths in sports careers. In artistry, the pupils were learning how to make regular geometrical shapes with paper, emphasising the most commonly used shapes in design. In sports, the pupils measured and averaged their running times and throwing and jumping distances to decide overall winners in each category.

On Friday, the pupils were working on maths in engineering. The pupils were tasked with creating a bungee that could support an egg, getting it to bounce back up as close to the floor as possible without touching it. In this task, the pupils had to consider the elastic bands’ tensile strength to ensure it was not too short or too long for the 4.5m drop from the balcony.

Our pupils thought highly of this year’s maths week,

“I didn’t realise there was so much maths in designing clothing.”

“That was very interesting. The spurious correlations are crazy.”

“My pancakes were too runny. I think my flour measurements were a little bit wrong. I learned to double check my measurements as my cup to grams ratio was incorrect.”

Maths is the universal language of all sciences. We hope that Wellington pupils’ interest and passion for learning maths are inspired by the engaging maths week and that their maths logic is established to grow into outstanding pupils with critical thinking abilities. 

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宇宙之大，粒子之微，火箭之速，化工之巧，地球之变，生物之谜，日月之繁，无处不用数学。

——著名数学家华罗庚

研究发现，有的学生不喜欢学习数学，是因为不知道该怎样把枯燥的数学公式与纷繁复杂的现实社会联系起来，于是觉得数学是一门没有实用价值的学科，甚至产生抗拒的心理。其实，这样的想法与现实大相径庭，因为数学是一切科学的通用语言，是各行各业都离不开的基石。为了培养学生们积极的学习态度和对数学的好奇心，今年杭州惠灵顿外籍人员子女学校（即杭州惠灵顿国际学校）的数学周以“职业中的数学”为主题，以妙用数学的时装设计师、智用数学的经济学家、巧用数学的烹饪大师、活用数学的运动健儿、精用数学的工程师等为每日活动，启发学生思考不同职业中的数学应用，激发学生的学习兴趣，同时也对未来的职业发展做出思考。

今天，请随我们一起回顾上周数学周的精彩，看看惠灵顿优秀数学教研组的教师们是如何带领学生体验职业中的数学的吧。

Russell Clarke

小学部数学教研组长

今年的数学周已圆满落下帷幕。师生和家长都尽情享受了许多数学学习的快乐。孩子们在实际操作中检验日常所学，以实践检验着真理，从中获得了极大的快乐。让我们来听听孩子们的感受吧。

Eason 五年级

我特别喜欢“落蛋蹦极”这个活动，因为我们要仔细思考蹦极绳最合适的长度，一开始的时候也不知道会不会成功。

Bella五年级

我很喜欢能在数学课上走到外面去，做做运动，测量速度的快慢、跳跃的高度和投掷的距离。

Angela四年级

数学周期间，我最喜欢是测量煎饼配料的过程。我们仔细地称量了所有东西，最终做了一些超级美味的点心。

我们还在为家长开设的工作坊上，邀请出席的77位家长测试了自己的数学技能，体验一把学生时代的快乐。在随后的家长调查中，家长们为研讨会打了4.87分（满分5分）的高分评价， 71%的家长强烈同意“惠灵顿数学教学法能让孩子从中受益”，其余29%也同样同意这一说法。家长们的信任与认同是我们持续前进、精益求精的动力，也是共建家校紧密关系的基石。

总而言之，2022年数学周是让孩子们在玩乐中拔高技能的奇趣一周，更让孩子们从自身的角度和动手实践的过程中发现数学在各行各业中的重要意义。这一周的丰富活动将启发孩子们深入研习数学的兴趣，让孩子们以更坚实的知识基础和广阔的视野开展未来的职业选择。

Bradley Dennon 

中学部数学教研组长

杭州惠灵顿国际学校的数学周有着多重意义：不仅是数学教研组宣告对数学的热爱、引导学生看到数学的奥妙的大好机会，更是让老师们充分应用数学专业知识，向学生们强调数学在日常生活中的重要性的平台。

今年数学周以“职业中的数学”为主题。大家都知道数学是被广泛应用于日常生活的一门学科，但具体有哪些例子呢？似乎除了点钱、看路标之外，我们很难想到数学其他的具体应用。今年的数学周就能很好地让学生看到更深入使用数学知识的多种行业。

这一主题与课程所学有着怎样的联系呢？当活动主题与课程内容紧密相关时，学生才能从中受益匪浅、产生学习的热情，而不至于迷失在眼花缭乱的活动中。数学周里，学生在各项活动中研究的是测量、称重、周长、面积、圆周率、利润、平均数，甚至抗拉强度；而这些正是七至十一年级学生的课程内容，是许多学生已然烂熟于心的知识，只不过数学周的活动强化了课本知识与日常生活的紧密联系。

周一，学生用布料制作裙装，学习时装设计中的数学要点，比如量体裁衣的尺寸确定、大量的圆周计算等，以及出售这间裙子的利润与成本等。

同学们对时装设计中的数学应用感到非常好奇。有位同学说：“真没想到设计服装时要用到这么多数学知识。”

数学周

周二，经济学教授康迪女士在学校大剧场为学生们开展了一场讲座，讲解数学在经济学相关的日常工作中具备的重要意义。当前，同学们正在学习数据收集和分析的重要性，以及在并不真正存在的数据间搭建联系的意义。

周三，同学们动手制作煎饼，了解烹饪中的数学技巧。学生们按照食谱要求，完成从制作12个煎饼到5个煎饼的食材缩减计算，随后测量、称重原料，最后制作出没有浪费材料的煎饼。

活动结束后，同学们纷纷开始反思自己在挑战中的表现。有位同学说：“我的煎饼黏性太差了。可能是称面粉时失误了。我学会了要多次检查称重结果，因为多检查几次后才发现，原来我的杯对克的比例不对。”

周四，学生可以选择参加艺术创作中的数学或体育职业中的数学活动。在艺术创作中的数学中，学生学习了如何用纸制作规则的几何图形，重点了解了设计中最常用的图形。在体育数学活动中，学生测量了跑步时间、投掷及跳跃距离，并计算平均值，确定各类别的最终赢家。

周五，学生学习的是工程中的数学，须完成“落蛋蹦极”挑战，即制作一个能支撑鸡蛋的弹力带，让鸡蛋在不接触地面的情况下尽可能地反弹回来。在这项挑战中，学生必须考虑弹力带的抗拉强度，让鸡蛋从4.5米高的阳台落下时，蹦极绳的长度刚好能让鸡蛋安全回弹。

自建校以来，杭州惠灵顿国际学校数学教研组定期启动 “数学周”，带领学生感受“万物皆数学”的奇妙、深入了解“π与解决问题”的关系，学习时间单位所蕴含的数学奥妙，今年更是开启了一场研究“职业中的数学”之旅，在创意迸发的游戏和趣味十足的工作坊中激发学生对数学的兴趣、深化认识各行各业中被广为使用的数学知识，将抽象与现实相结合，培养学生的数学思维。

就这样，我们引导学生养成积极乐观的生活态度，热情地投入所做的每一件事，对万事万物充满好奇心——这体现的是“积极”的惠灵顿特质；能够批判地思考问题、具备思辨能力、养成科学思维、终生热爱学习——这体现的是“慎思”的惠灵顿特质；最终，惠灵顿学子将成长为具备优质综合才能、有能力适应日新月异的世界并茁壮成长的优秀学子。