King’s Ely students placed joint first at Mathematical Enrichment Conference

King’s Ely Senior students were on top form at the annual Mathematical Enrichment Conference.

Eight mathematicians from Year 9 and 10 travelled to Oundle School, near Peterborough, for the conference. Students in attendance took part in three fascinating activities, including an interactive lecture exploring complex numbers, a show inside the Planetarium currently on loan to Oundle School, and an ICT activity involving Excel and Google Earth. The Planetarium was a particular highlight, projecting incredible images of star constellations, galaxies and planets onto the interior of an inflated dome.

After lunch, the King’s Ely group were split into two teams of four to participate in a challenging mathematical competition, which involved 23 teams in total. The students were first put in an escape room scenario and each team had three problems to solve before they were allowed outside.

King’s Ely A Team, consisting of Benedict George, Eleanor MacGillivray, Thomas Kim and Sam Barber, escaped very quickly, allowing them to start the outdoor problems early. The students then had a ‘treasure hunt’ with 16 problems pinned to the walls of the buildings. Teams had a set amount of time to solve all of these problems.

King’s Ely A Team placed joint first in the competition with a perfect score. King’s Ely B Team, consisting of Joel Ezana, Rory Morgan, Matthew Larmour and David Harris, was placed ninth.

To find out more about opportunities at King’s Ely, please visit www.kingsely.org.