Further maths students from Years 12 and 13 went to the University of Luxembourg in Belval on Tuesday, 11 February, to take part in a Scienteens Lab workshop run by the mathematics department. The workshop, entitled ‘Linear optimisation and population dynamics’, gave students an overview of mathematical modelling and showed them how real-world problems can be modelled and solved using mathematics.

The day gave our students a real taste of university-style mathematical learning. With a lively, experienced educator, displaying the eccentricities expected of a high-ranking mathematician, giving first-class lessons in the rigours of mathematics, the students found themselves immersed in the beautiful mathematical world. The workshop covered, among other things:

• Examples of linear optimisation problems
• Graphical resolution of a two-variable problem (using GeoGebra)
• The simplex algorithm
• Linear, exponential and logistic growth
• The SIR model and its implementation in GeoGebra.