During the June holidays, 34 students took part in the Singapore Mathematical Olympiad Competition under the Junior section. Our students won a total of 1 Silver, 3 Bronze and 3 Honourable Mention awards.
4 teams have participated in this year Amazing Science X-Challenge 2010 which requires them to create a stand-alone, self-explanatory exhibit that demonstrates a particular scientific concept unique to the physical sciences. One of our teams has emerged as the winners for the Special Mention Prizes of $150 and a medal.
Congratulations to Arthur Lee and Millie Thng from S1-04 for achieving Merit Awards for the Singapore HeritageFest 2010, "Artefactually Speaking" Storywriting Competition!
Singapore VEX Robotics Championship 2010 Our Robotics Club participated in the Singapore VEX Robotics Championship 2010 (3 - 4 June 2010).
The club has obtained Silver for 2 out of 3 categories of the competition, for "Team Alliance" and "Best Programming Skills". The team was also awarded the "Judges Award" trophy for Best Newcomer.
1. SST Mathematics curriculum aims to enable our students to
acquire the mathematical concepts, skills, processes, attitudes and meta-cognitive abilities to solve a wide range of problems, including those situated in real world contexts
develop ability to communicate confidently and clearly, to reason and think logically, mathematically and imaginatively and to learn cooperatively and independently
develop an appreciation and disposition towards using mathematics (and technology) as a powerful tool to model, solve and describe real world problems and phenomena
Heart of the Discipline
2. Mathematics is the study of the properties, patterns and relationships in numbers, space and other abstract objects. It relies on logic and creativity to establish truths and solve problems. It provides a powerful and versatile tool for modelling, solving and understanding a wide range of problems in real-life and hypothetical situations. Throughout history, the development of mathematics contributes to the understanding of other disciplines, particularly in the basic and applied sciences. Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) referred to mathematics as “the Queen of the Sciences”.
3. The SST Mathematics curriculum provides opportunities for students to appreciate the power of Mathematics and apply their learning to model real world situations and find innovative solutions to real world problems.
4. The SST Mathematics curriculum organises the learning into units of work revolving around real world problems, while bearing in mind the hierarchical nature of the concepts and skills. The real world problems serve to pique the students’ curiosity and provide meaning, motivation and relevance to the learning of these units.
Assessment
5. The assessment in SST Mathematics features a range of assessment modes used to gather evidence of student performance and provide feedback on teaching and learning. These include performance tasks, journal writing, investigations and presentations.
6. Another important component of this SST assessment is the interdisciplinary project. It focuses on assessing students’ abilities to appropriately apply and integrate mathematical concepts with knowledge from other disciplines and clearly communicate ideas, supported by the innovative use of available technology.
7. In addition, assessment through written term tests conducted after each unit of work and comprehensive assessment at the end of the academic year ensure that the students are ready to progress to the next level of study.
Pedagogical Approaches
8. The SST Mathematics Teaching Model demonstrates the dominant approach in the teaching and learning of mathematics. It features five main stages as depicted below:
9. Each unit begins with a motivating problem that is situated in a real world context. With the help of teacher facilitation, students go through the process of formulating the problem, learning the relevant concepts and developing skill proficiency, and applying the learning back to solve the problem posed. At the end of the unit, students are given opportunities to make connections and extending their learning to other mathematical concepts or with other subjects.
10. Such a progression will see students transit from the real world to the mathematical world and then back to the real world.
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