Day 8, 23rd November 2012

Today we had chicken porridge for breakfast, prepared by Jasper, Adnan, Oscar and Jerome. After that we went to Griffith University to carry on with what we left off on the previous day for our Mathematics Modelling Challenge. 

It was a race against time to completely analyse our data and make a poster and powerpoint before we had to present it to our mentors. Although many of us struggled, we still manage to complete our task.

For this years challenge, a total of six students received prizes. They are Jasper Lee (12S06), Jenice Choy (12S10), Dennis Lew (12S12), Jasmine Liew (12S17), Valerie Yue (12S18) and Jaivignesh (12S20).

After the end of the challenge, we went for a dinner cruise at Marina Mirage before saying our last good byes to our new friends.

We came back to the apartment to carry on with our reflection. We are going back to Singapore tomorrow and we feel sad. However, we have benefitted a lot from this trip. We have a deeper understanding of the education system in Australia and how the students learn Math. We are also culturally more aware. We thank our teachers for taking care of us. We also thank our principal and vice-principals for giving us the opportunity to go for this trip.

Day 7, 22nd November 2012

 Today's breakfast was prepared by Jenice, Hui Xia, Jasmine and Jia Ying. After which, we entered Griffith University with confidence for the Mathematics Modelling Challenge. The three days of Mathematics Modelling Forum in A.B Paterson College has prepared us well.

We started the day with a briefing by Mr Trevor. He showed us a short cartoon clip relevent to Math Modelling which motivated all the 455 students from 33 schools. We were then split into our own groups, assigned to our mentors for the Mathematics Modelling Challenge.

In our own groups, we were all given real-life problems and scenarios by our mentors and we needed to work out solutions for them. We went for our morning tea after having a rough idea of how we were going to solve our problems.

Many of us had difficulties finding a solution. But as we took it step by step, the answers began to appear. We started off by listing the assumptions before coming out with an idea. After that we had to substantiate our idea by trial and error and collecting data. We then had to modify our idea based on the data. With the guidance from our mentors, we continued working on our project for a few more hours before we came to an end of the first day of the challenge.

We then set off to Robina Shopping Complex to have our dinner as well as some shopping.

As we came back to the apartment, we did our reflections based on the differences of the education systems in Australia and Singapore. We were given a surprise birthday celebration by the teachers after that. All the best to everyone for the Math Modelling Challenge tomorrow!

Day 6, 21st November 2012

We woke up at the usual time and had breakfast prepared by Dennis, Xue Kai, Kai Xiang and Asyraf. After which, we headed to A.B Paterson College for a talk by Dr Signe Reimer Sorensen on astrophysical observations.

We started on our task which is to post a real-life problem and come up a solution to it. We used programmes such as the LoggerPro and Ti-Nspire to help us find a Velocity-Time and Acceleration-Time Graphs from the data we have collected from the rides in Movie World. When we finished our task we had to present to everyone the initial findings, data collected, models used, solutions and limitations.

After that we had a quick sports session before we started our Maths Trivia Night, a race against time to complete as many math questions as possible.

Finally, we had a great barbeque dinner. At the same time, there was a talk by Mr Kai Wong. We said goodbye to A.B Paterson College as we headed back to our apartment for group reflection on learning of Mathematics in Australia.

Day 5, 20th November 2012

It has been a daily routine for us to have breakfast at 0730 hrs. Today, Trilene, Kun Yan, Nguyen and Valerie got up early to prepare breakfast for all of us. We greatly appreciate their effort. 

After breakfast, we headed for Movie World to collect data for Mathematics Modelling Project. All of us were very excited about this trip as we could not wait to get on the roller coasters.

While having fun, we also kept in mind that we had to collect data as part of our Mathematics Modelling Project. We have equipped ourselves with data logger vests to help us calculate the speed of roller coasters and other rides. We had a fun time getting on the rides, attempting the math modelling worksheets and collaborating with new Australian friends to collect data for the project.

We also took this opportunity to buy gifts and souvenirs for our families and friends.

We had a wonderful chinese dinner in Top One Chinese Restaurant at Pacific Fair before heading back for our Apartment. Tonight we also did a reflection and sharing on the Australian culture.

Day 4, 19th November 2012

We woke up at 0700 hrs and had breakfast prepared by Christopher, Charles, James and Vignesh. Then we set off to A.B Paterson College at 0830 hrs for the beginning of our Mathematics Modelling Forum.

As we reached the College , we saw students from different schools there as well. To begin, we attended a lecture by Mr Firestone on the applications of Math Modelling, which caught our attention and kept us thinking.

We had a short break before proceeding to the first segment of our Math Modelling Forum, "How to go to Mars". We were divided into groups, joining other schools to solve a modelling task. We were challenged to find out the following 2 things:

1) The landing where we need to decide the best design of the craft to let the rover land safely on Mars,

2) The design of the rover that needs to be considered for the rover to travel around Mars.

After that we had sports activities like Volleyball, Basketball, Soccer and Captain's ball with students from other schools.We thoroughly enjoyed the activities and look forward to going to A.B Paterson College again.

Day 3, 18th November 2012

Today we had breakfast in the teacher's apartment. Our groups take turns to prepare breakfast for everyone. We thank Jocelyn, Jasylne, Yu Jun  and Lecia for a sumptuous breakfast.

After that, we took a bus for our Hinterland tour. We saw the largest volcanic caldera in the southern hemisphere, waterfalls and natural bridge.

After that we had lunch at a quaint little restaurant with a beautiful garden. We took many pictures and had a sumptuous lunch. We also went to a farm for fruit tasting.

Throughout our experience, we felt the different ecologies of both countries. After this memorable journey and experience we went back to our apartment and did our reflections on the conservation of land and marine animals in Australia.

Day 2 , 17th November 2012

Good Day! On the second day, we headed for Sea World to understand more about the conservation of marine life in Brisbane.

After a briefing by Mr Chow, we split into groups to do our own independent learning. We were mesmerized by the number of marine life there, such as manta rays, penguins, polar bears, dolphins and sharks.

To add to the excitement, there were also dolphins performance, jet stunts extreme and the feeding of manta rays. The show was so awesome that we would not want to miss a second of it. Towards the end, we watched the Spongebob 3D movie which brought good memories of our childhood days.

At the end of the day, before heading for dinner, we went grocery shopping at Woolworths. Thereafter, we  had a good dinner before we went back to Bluewaters Apartment at 2030 hrs.