40 students from year 8 spent a day applying their mathematical skills and trying to build 20 foot high pyramids from nothing more than sticks and elastic bands as part of an enrichment maths event at the Catalyst Museum. The first challenge was pyramid building. This involved teams creating small tetrahedrons using garden canes and elastic bands. Then these tetrahedrons were gradually added together until a huge structure was created that reached the ceiling but could be picked up by just 3 people. Sounding simple on paper this task was both challenging, fun and just a little frustrating as snapping elastic bands, snapped canes and poorly built tetrahedrons all played their part in creating difficulties. The final products produced by both the girls’ and boys’ teams were spectacular and showed the simplicity of the design that could be repeated to build super structures.
The afternoon was spent in a problem solving race where the groups rotated round over 90 different problems ranging from the completely straightforward to the incredibly complex and everybody found at least one problem that they could not solve. The day showed the great breadth of application of school mathematics and how vital it is to the world around us.
