Written by Ms Veronica Bressi
(Acting Assistant Head of Mathematics)

Year Seven participated in the Reach for the Stars activity during National Numeracy and Literacy Week in Term 3. St Joseph’s students participated in a shuttle run competition amongst 77 700 other Australian students where nearly one million shuttles were dropped into containers.

Each class was divided into four teams and each team member in turn ran 20 metres to place a shuttle (paddle pop stick) in a container and then ran 20 metres back to their team. The shuttles were run across three intervals: 2 minutes, 4 minutes and 6 minutes. Over 2500 shuttles were dropped by the boys at Joeys.

All classes made a serious and concerted effort on the day. Some classes were running in wet conditions whilst other classes ran in the mud. Despite the weather, the boys enjoyed the challenge of aiming to be the best school in Australia. Evidently, every class in year 7 beat the average number of shuttles for each period of time.

The purpose for participation in this event is that the boys now have access to all the data from the national results and can use this large amount of data to make a significant analysis of this data and discuss the mathematical relevance of it during class time.

Pictured in Photo 1:  Lochie Simpson (Chifley), Lachlan Walker (Balmain), Tom Wright (Waverley)

Pictured in Photo 2:  Sam Reimer (Killara)