Cooking a mathematical storm at NASSSA CLC

Context is everything when it comes to teaching maths at NASSSA Community Learning Centre.

“Lots of people have really awful experiences with maths in school and part of that is maybe the teacher goes too fast or maybe they [students] just don’t see the relevance,” says Dani Burbrook, ENGAGE Maths teacher.

“Either maths is really scary or its overwhelming or their experiences in the past affect their belief that they can learn.

“So I guess one of the things as the teacher of ENGAGE Maths is I’m trying to encourage students that they can learn maths and it’s not impossible. But to also relate it to real life as much as possible.

“Everything that we do in maths has some real life application, so I need to try and bring that real life application to life for students in this class.”

Natasha W., a NASSSA CLC FLO student says that she loves the practical approach to teaching maths.

“I really love the teachers here because they’re really nice and sweet and I love maths because we get to cook and it’s more hands-on stuff and we can relate it back to real life scenarios,” says Natasha.

“Dani tries to help us. She tries to do one-on-one with us, or she comes to us. She particularly teaches what we actually need which is really good.”

“Sometimes we work on things together, sometimes students are doing their own thing, sometimes we cook, sometimes we’re doing bookwork,” says Dani.

“I never leave things hanging, I always go back the next week and we revise what we did and, as much as possible, put it into context.”

Dennis C., a NASSSA CLC FLO student, finds the blend of maths and cooking to be weird, but alright.

“It’s pretty good. I’m learning a lot and what I’ve learnt previously has been coming back to me. So I’m starting to use it a lot more,” says Dennis.

“It’s actually really good, us making food,” agrees Hayden S, a NASSSA CLC FLO student who has enjoyed making What’s-in-the-Pantry Spaghetti Sauce, Potato Bake, Fruit Crumble and French Mushroom Soup as part of this term’s ENGAGE Maths curriculum.

And what of their experiences at NASSSA CLC and Northern Adelaide Senior College?

“I like this place because the people here are friendly and they’re warm to everyone. They don’t care about your background. They’re open with you,” smiles Natasha.

“I’ll tell them to come here because you can pick what classes you want and plus they’re a lot laid back and the teachers here are a lot more understanding,” agrees Dennis.

If you would like to enter our NASSSA CLC FLO program, contact your home school case managers about enrolling at our school.

Or if you’d like to enroll as a year 11-13 student at Northern Adelaide Senior College contact us on (08) 7285 1600 to book an appointment.