2020 WA Annual Maths Conference
The Mathematical Association of Western Australia held the 2020 WA Annual Maths Conference to be held at the Crown Convention Centre, Burswood from 25-27 November.
Maths is everywhere, operating in real life ways all around us.
It can help you build things, shop at the grocery store, bake a cake, save money, manage time and is used in areas such as the magic of origami,
the dynamics of coral reefs, the flight path to outer space, the world of micro-organisms or the wonders of patterns.
The theme “Maths Takes You Places” highlights that mathematics opens doors to a variety of opportunities and exciting careers.
The conference showcased best practice in 21st century learning, classroom resources and assessment strategies.
The Heads of Learning Area day was on Wednesday followed by the Secondary and Post-Secondary day on Thursday and the combined Primary and Secondary day was on Friday.
This was the year MAWA hosted Australia’s first hybrid mathematics conference which allowed educators from regional and remote locations in WA
and beyond to access this high-quality professional learning experience virtually.
Each year the conference attracts over 800 teachers from around Western Australia and beyond.
The conference represents an exciting opportunity for educators from all sectors and year groups to collaborate, network and engage with exhibitors and trade sponsors.
Even delegates that attended virtually were able to connect with and visit exhibitors online.
The program is available to download here.
We were pleased to have two highly respected educators, Amie Albrecht from the University of South Australia and James Russo from Monash University delivering the keynotes.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AMIE ALBRECHT
Amie Albrecht is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of South Australia. Her research largely focuses on solving practical industry-inspired challenges, leading to more efficient and sustainable transport.
Amie taught mathematics at university for a number of years—at first, teaching just like she’d been taught. But around eight years ago Amie realised the disconnect between traditional procedural-based teaching found in many classrooms, and the creative and collaborative ways in which professional mathematicians work.
Her award-winning teaching now focuses on developing mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills by giving students opportunities to explore their own mathematical ideas, leading them to share delightful and unexpected ways of approaching problems. Her inclusive approach encourages all students to develop a richer understanding of mathematics, inspiring the pre-service teachers she works with to incorporate these authentic mathematical practices in their own classrooms.
Amie is a popular presenter to teachers and students across Australia. Amie thinks of mathematics as a collection of connected puzzles—challenging, fun, sometimes frustrating, but always satisfying to understand.
Dr. JAMES RUSSO
James Russo is a researcher and pre-service teacher educator based out of Monash University, Victoria. His research interests include:
- teacher and student emotional responses in the primary mathematics classroom;
- the role of challenging tasks, games, and children’s literature as pedagogical approaches to support positive student learning experiences in primary mathematics;
- better understanding the relationship between classroom practice and academic research
- the learning and teaching of mental computation and estimation;
James writes regularly for a range of teacher practitioner journals and continues to spend some of his week team-teaching in a primary classroom. He uses this as a space to develop and test teaching ideas, and to stimulate thinking about his research. James is currently working on an Australian Research Council project looking at developing sequences of learning experiences built around challenging tasks.