PETER Chandler believes he has made maths fun.
The Penrhos College Maths Mentor and STEM co-ordinator said maths used to be “social suicide” at the school until they introduced the MathsMentorProgram@Penrhos eight years ago.
The program was recognised at the Choose Maths Awards, with Mr Chandler being one of the two teachers to take out the Mentoring Girls in Maths Award top prize.
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READ NOW“I’m very excited and very proud, when we started we wanted to show that maths can be cool and change the perception,” he said.
“The girls aren’t nerds, they love drama and sport and now they love maths too.
“When girls spoke about maths at assemblies they were embarrassed because it was considered social suicide but now there are no worries.”
Mr Chandler said the program had seen the school link up with the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and Curtin University for projects.
“We brought back former students to show girls that are successful in maths, girls need role models,” he said.
“We have school captains and football captains and now we have maths captains, who would have thought that would happen?”
Maths Mentor captain Rebecca Walmsley said one of the ideas being considered was a project called ‘Girls Choose Maths’ which would provide an opportunity for girls from other schools to see where maths can lead them.
“Mr Chandler has made the world his classroom and demonstrated that maths is truly more than just numbers,” she said.
Rebecca was one of 40 students who travelled to the USA recently for the College’s first USA Space Camp and STEM Tour.
The group visited the famous Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, spent six days at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama and toured Berkeley University.