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Reflections: November, 1999

Contents Volume 24, No. 4

EDITORIAL

HISTORY OF THE OLYMPICS AND THE TORCH RELAY

  • Sydney 2000 - Games of the 27th Olympiad and XI Paralympiad, Paul White
  • 1996 Olympics: Medal Tally, Robert Yen
  • Comparing Olympic city climates, Korin Gibson
  • Torch relay coordinates and torch relay distances, Leanne Garth
  • The Olympic Torch, Beth Southwell
  • Additional torch facts

GOING TO THE 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES

  • Sydney 2000 Olympic events, dates and ticket price range
  • Sydney 2000 Olympic events and venues
  • The price of the games - Number 1, Nicole Smith
  • The price of the games - Number 2, Evie Apfelbaum
  • Calculating distances, Evie Apfelbaum
  • Calculating times, Evie Apfelbaum
  • 'Coordinate' ~ ing Olympic Park, Nicole Smith
  • Big numbers and the Olympics, Evie Apfelbaum
  • More on the stadium ... , Evie Apfelbaum
  • My Olympic Experience, Katherine Garth
  • '131 500, how can I help you?', Trudie Robertson
  • Time Zones, Leanne Garth
  • The Olympic holiday maths investigation, Peter Hughes
  • Preparing a timetable for the opening ceremony, Kelly Mercer

OLYMPIC EVENTS

Aquatics

  • The men's 400 m freestyle, Ed Lewis
  • Hitting the wall!, Jim Grant --
  • Twisting and turning, Jim Grant
  • Diving into maths, Elaine Elliott
  • Let's find out!, Jim Grant
  • Paralympic swimmers, Jim Grant

Archery

  • Archery, Beth Southwell

Athletics

  • Marathon (42 km race), Mark Mikulandra and Leanne Sylvester
  • Marathon maths, Peter Merrick
  • Energy for running, Doreen Forrest
  • Time, speed, distance discovery, Katherine Garth
  • Olympic and World records, Katherine Garth
  • Olympic Games - Some track and field records, Conference participants, MANSW 1999

Basketball

  • Basketball, Mark Mikulandra and Leanne Sylvester

Equestrian

  • Showjumping, Evie Apfelbaum

Football

  • Football (Soccer), Mark Mikulandra and Leanne Sylvester

Hockey

  • Hockey, Mark Mikulandra and Leanne Sylvester

Rowing

  • Rowing 2000, Doreen Forrest

Softball

  • Investigating softball, Doreen Forrest
  • Comparing ball bounce, Doreen Forrest
  • Measuring up, Doreen Forrest

Tennis

  • Tennis, Mark Mikulandra and Leanne Sylvester

Triathlon

  • Triathlon, Mark Mikulandra and Leanne Sylvester

Weightlifting

  • Weightlifting, Carol Mason

WERE THE PREDICTIONS CORRECT?, Judy Anderson

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

  • Australia's Olympic medal tally, 1896 to 1996
  • 1996 (Atlanta, USA) Olympic Games - Some results
  • World Records for Marathon (men)
  • World Record for Marathon (women)
  • References and internet sites
  • Answers to some activities and further suggestions 

Editorial

Using the upcoming Sydney Olympic Games as a focus in mathematics lessons provides teachers with a unique opportunity to motivate students, reinforce the relevance of mathematics in their daily lives, and incorporate students' interests into their learning experiences. This combined issue of Reflections and Square One aims to support teachers' efforts in this regard by presenting potential teaching ideas for Years 5 to 8 in a readily useable format.

This volume is structured into four sections. The first includes information about the history of the Olympic games and the torch relay. The second involves specific information about the 2000 Olympic games to be held in Sydney, including purchasing tickets, planning a trip to the games, and information about Stadium Australia. The third presents activities involving many Olympic events, as well as an activity on the outcome of the Sydney games. The fourth includes additional information for teachers to develop their own worksheets, useful references and intemet sites to explore with students, and answers to some activities, along with further teaching suggestions.

The activities and worksheets in this issue were prepared by classroom teachers, mathematics education lecturers, and final year trainee teachers. A meeting of interested writers was held after authors were sought through advertisements in MANSW primary and secondary newsletters. This led to the writing and trialling of many of the activities. It was not possible to include activities on all of the Olympic events but we have endeavoured to provide teaching ideas on a broad range, including the Paralympics.

This set of materials is not meant to be a unit of work to be used with one particular class in the order presented. Rather, we anticipate that teachers will use the ideas to create their own teaching unit, or adapt the worksheets to suit their teaching and learning program. It is recommended that teachers work through activities before presenting them to their students. In this way, the suggested questions and activities could be adapted to meet the needs of individual students.

This material has been developed with the support of SOCOG who approved the use of the Olympic imagery. We would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement of Susan Crawford, Manager of the SOCOG National Education Program.

The photographs used on the cover, as well as inside this issue, were taken during several visits to the site by Judy Anderson.

Judy Anderson, Beth Southwell and Allan White

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