Mathematics
Alkimos College
Learning mathematics creates opportunities for and enriches the lives of all Australians. The Western Australian Curriculum: Mathematics provides students with essential mathematical skills and knowledge in Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability. It develops the numeracy capabilities that all students need in their personal, work and civic life, and provides the fundamentals on which mathematical specialties and professional applications of mathematics are built.
Aims
The Western Australian Curriculum: Mathematics aims to ensure that students:
- are confident, creative users and communicators of mathematics, able to investigate, represent and interpret situations in their personal and work lives and as active citizens
- develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts and fluency with processes, and are able to pose and solve problems and reason in Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability
- recognise connections between the areas of mathematics and other disciplines and appreciate mathematics as an accessible and enjoyable discipline to study.
Content Structure
The Western Australian Curriculum: Mathematics is organised around the interaction of three content strands and four proficiency strands.
The content strands are Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability. They describe what is to be taught and learnt.
The proficiency strands are Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving, and Reasoning. They describe how content is explored or developed, that is, the thinking and doing of mathematics. They provide the language to build in the developmental aspects of the learning of mathematics and have been incorporated into the content descriptions of the three content strands described above. This approach has been adopted to ensure students’ proficiency in mathematical skills develops throughout the curriculum and becomes increasingly sophisticated over the years of schooling.
At Alkimos College our students work together to foster creativity and innovation to create empowered individuals. We provide a safe and inclusive environment where ‘hands on’ and ‘minds on’ learning experiences are embedded in everyday college life. Our staff and students strive for excellence and grow with our community to cultivate a culture of high quality teaching and learning.
Year 7 Syllabus
The proficiency strands understanding, fluency, problem-solving and reasoning are an integral part of mathematics content across the three content strands: number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. The proficiencies reinforce the significance of working mathematically within the content and describe how the content is explored or developed. They provide the language to build in the developmental aspects of the learning of mathematics. The achievement standards reflect the content and encompass the proficiencies.
At Year 7:
- understanding includes describing patterns in uses of indices with whole numbers, recognising equivalences between fractions, decimals, percentages and ratios, plotting points on the Cartesian plane, identifying angles formed by a transversal crossing a pair of lines, and connecting the laws and properties of numbers to algebraic terms and expressions
- fluency includes calculating accurately with integers, representing fractions and decimals in various ways, investigating best buys, finding measures of central tendency and calculating areas of shapes and volumes of prisms
- problem-solving includes formulating and solving authentic problems using numbers and measurements, working with transformations and identifying symmetry, calculating angles and interpreting sets of data collected through chance experiments
- reasoning includes applying the number laws to calculations, applying known geometric facts to draw conclusions about shapes, applying an understanding of ratio and interpreting data displays.
