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This week has been busy. Since it is World of Work week, we have had many visitors come into school to talk about their jobs. We had visits from a Councillor, a Prosthetist, a Seamstress, IT Manager, Advertising/Marketing Manager, Psychologists and so on.   Each speaker was very interesting – they told us about their jobs, the skills they used and what skills we had which could help us. For many of us, after listening to the speakers, we are beginning to look down different career paths.   Then, on Friday, we dressed up as our ‘chosen job’.  It was really interesting watching everyone in their different outfits.   

On Thursday we went to Edinburgh University’s math department to take part in a maths workshop.  The workshop was about Drawing Stars. It wasn’t as simple as it sounds – we’ve kind of left it to poor old Mr Hunter’s to explain!

So here goes.

First, a few of us had to sit in a circle. We made sure that we were spaced equally apart.  Next, one of us was given a ball of string by ‘Dr George’, the mathematician.  We held onto the lose end of the string and passed the ball clockwise a fixed number of spaces (the ‘pass size’ – for example 3 spaces) to someone else in the circle.  Next, the person who received the string held onto it tightly and then passed the ball clockwise to another person using the same ‘pass size’ (3 spaces).  We continued with this routine until the ball of string returned back to the first person, at which point, a shape, a polygon, a straight line or a star was formed.  Phew…..still with me?

Once we had tested this out using ‘people’, we split into groups of 3 and, using whiteboards, with different amounts of dots (people), we attempted to create stars, with different amounts of points, using different ‘pass sizes’.  We recorded our findings in a table and this allowed us to discuss (and predict) the following questions:

• What happens if you ‘pass’ right instead of left?
• What happens with prime numbers?
• What is the outcome if you use odd or even numbers of people?
• What combination of ‘people’ and ‘passes’ produce stars?
• Is it possible to predict the outcome (points and stars) without actually doing the experiment?

Overall, we have really enjoyed this week – but some of us are still recovering after camp and trying to get back in the swing of things at school.

Freya, Dylan, Emma, Cara (& Mr Hunter)