One hundred Year 5 and 6 skilled maths students from schools across the Great Lakes Learning Community gathered at the college to practice problem solving strategies to take with them into high school and beyond. 

It was the third maths event held by the college in so many years. Teacher Don Robertson began organising the annual day to ignite primary students' passion for mathematics.

When not teaching the subject, Mr Robertson has invested some time visiting primary schools in the region to show students how relevant mathematical skills can be.

"We've noticed that a lot fewer kids are doing the higher level maths in the senior years," Mr Robertson said.  

"They are falling off the train somewhere. So activities like this try to try to keep their interest in maths going."

Mr Robertson said there are eight recognised problem solving strategies which need to be explicitly taught at the appropriate age levels from kindergarten up, such as pattern recognition.

"We should start seeing the result of this explicit teaching in four to five years" Mr Robertson said.

Students attending the Super Sleuth Maths Day were separated into smaller school groups, and moved from room to room solving four different types of problem solving tasks. In one room they explored forming a Tarsia, consisting of 24 triangles with questions alongside each edge. 

Each triangle joined onto another like a jigsaw, joining the question to its right answer, to ultimately form a large hexagon.

In another room they solved 33 maths problems, mostly multiple choice, inspired by the Australian Mathematics Trust competitions which select the members for the Australian Olympic Mathematics team.

A third room had 20 problem solving cards, and the fourth room had the most physical activity, with maths teacher Linda Elliott’s activity called Mr Sleuth's Mystery Maths Word.

Teams were presented with five problems each. Every time they solved a problem, they collected a letter, ultimately making up a mystery maths word such as PRISM. 

Several volunteers observed the groups, allocating points for best and fairest to emphasise that teamwork and collaboration was an important component of the day.

Prizes donated by Bunnings, Stocklands, and McDonalds were handed to students and the winning team at the end of the day.

Questions included “how many times are the hands of a clock at right angles in a day?” and using “find the missing number in this pattern: 117, 77, 49, 36, ?, ?”.

"It's really about developing an ability to be resourceful and creative," said Mr Robertson. "Problem solving is exploring every avenue. Like a detective, you don't know what evidence is relevant until you consider it".