Wednesday 20th March saw eight Year 10s venture to CNS in Norwich along with Dr Gollop and Miss Theobald to take part in the Year 10 Maths Feast competition. Alanna, Alice-Joy, Zak, Mitchell, Caitlin, Sophie, Max and Kieran split themselves into two teams to compete against 19 other teams.
As they arrived they were given a warm up number word search whilst waiting for the other teams to arrive. Introductions were given and teachers then had to swap teams (marking each round for their ‘adopted’ school). The first round was called Merry-go-round. Each member of the team was given 15 questions based on number, algebra and geometry topics and 5 minutes to answer as many questions as they could. Then they swapped papers and had 4 more minutes, then 3 mins and 2 minutes, until they had all had a go at each other’s questions. The final minute they were then allowed to discuss any questions they were struggling with. This was a strong round for one of our teams in particular, scoring 43 points out of a possible 60. This round was one that a number of our students preferred.
Team 1 all set for the competition.
Team 2 ready to compete against all of the other schools.
The second one was certainly challenging. The teams split into two and had 3 minutes to read a poster about a new area of Maths they had never seen before – algorithms and networks. They then had further time to answer some tricky questions using this new Maths. This round saw both teams score just over half marks and was the one they found most difficult.
Then it was time for a quick break and to enjoy the vast amount of cakes, biscuits and fruit available!
Hard at work in round 2.
Working well as a team to solve the problems.
The third round was called higher or lower. Teams were given a starting number and then had ten problems to solve as a team, each time deciding if the answer was higher or lower than the answer to the previous question.
The final round had bonus points available. Teams split themselves into pairs again, the first pair were given a problem to solve and had to pass on their answer to the second team who then used this value in their problem. This continued until four questions had been answered with a bonus mark if all four were correct. There were four rounds of questions to complete with 20 points up for grabs in total.
Teams then had to wait to see who were announced as the winners – it was a tie between the two teams from Sprowston! Although we were not winners on this occasion both teams did Northgate proud and displayed excellent problem solving skills, working really well in their teams.
Back at school with their certificates.
