The Winter school, July 19, 1996.
In July this year the Mathematics Department at the University of Queensland opened it doors to 200 year 12 students. Students from schools around Brisbane spent the day exploring the dynamics of water-powered rockets,

experiencing the latest in computer graphics and visualisation technologies, encoding and decoding secret messages and using optimisation techniques to maximise the profits for a Hamburger outlet. Teachers and students alike were inspired by how much fun maths could be.

We would like to thank all the students and teachers who participated, and allowed us the opportunity to demonstrate the breadth of applications and the interesting problems that modern mathematicians address.

Some of the students made the following comments.

The winter school was really good. The activities were interesting , and the food was nice, too. I had a lot of fun!

The day inspired me to take mathematics more seriously as it opens many new doorways of opportunity.

I found the cryptography section very interesting and I should benefit in the future from obtaining this knowledge....I enjoyed the whole day as it gave me an insight as to some of the areas of Mathematics.

The day was particularly enjoyable and worthwhile, thankyou.

Overall the day was exciting, interesting and a fun day.

It was not what I expected. It was educational but presented in a fun way. The fractal design section with the Silicon graphic computers was very interesting.

After this winter school, I see mathematics in a totally new light. It changed my views on maths and this course should be shown to all students in senior maths.

The Mathematics Department is hoping to run another Winter School in 1997. If you would like more details please contact us and we will ensure you receive the Winter School Circulars.