Students were given a brief history of surveying and shown some of the equipment used in the past.

The latest Maths in Surveying Event was held at Bicentennial Park at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday 27 May. Students from three schools — Pacific Hills Christian College at Dural, Riverside Girls High School at Huntleys Point and Colyton High School — attended.

Unfortunately, Epping Boys High School had to pull out at the last minute, but that still left sixty Year 10 Advanced Maths students to enjoy the sunny weather and learn about surveying.

Twenty volunteer surveyors and 16 student teacher volunteers supervised the students in a range of activities:

• Bushfire Bearings, where the students had to climb two towers to intersect bearings to a flashing light representing a bushfire.
• Remote tower heighting using a total station.
• A mini-Olympics where the students had to measure the distance a tennis ball was thrown (similar to the shot put at the Olympics) and use a total station to record angles and distances to calculate the throw distance.
• Peace monument length activity using shadows, which involved calculating the height of parts of a sculpture that rise vertically from the ground, as well as the length of inclined parts of the sculpture suspended in mid-air.
• A discussion on the history of surveying and a demonstration of surveying equipment used in the past, including many early calculating devices.
• Laser scanning, where the students were shown how a laser scanner works and how it can be used to produce a rapid 3D model of an object.

Students climbed two towers to intersect bearings to a flashing light representing a bushfire.

Now in its 15th year, Maths in Surveying Day aims to address the shortage of students going into surveying careers by, hopefully, inspiring more of them to study advanced mathematics in high school. It is run by an independent committee comprising maths teachers and surveyors.

Two further events are planned for Sydney in 2022, on 12 August and 28 October. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Ian Iredale on 0418 488 342 or ian@mapsoft.com.au. Involvement is free and includes lunch and two Survey General CPD points assessed by ISNSW.

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