Mathematics Talent Quest

First held in 1982, the MTQ is an annual activity open to all primary and secondary students. Students select their own investigation topic based on their personal learning interests and apply mathematics in context. They understand and discover how mathematics is used and found in the world around them, providing a positive experience that reduces the barriers to learning in mathematics and often reduces student maths anxiety.

Download the 2024 MTQ flyer here.

Please make sure you have your unique MAV username and password. Contact the MAV office to create your MAV username and password on 9380 2399 if required.

STAGE 1

COST - FREE

TO JOIN MTQ OR UPDATE SCHOOL DETAILS, TEACHER DETAILS AND ENTRIES, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

MTQ ACCESS

All resources are available year round via our portal. This is available free of charge and enables schools to run the project with full support from us. We call this Stage 1 of the MTQ and in Stage 1, you do not need to submit any entries to us, nor do you need to be involved in judging.

What's included in your Stage 1 pack?

Teacher information and teacher tip sheet for running MTQ
Key Dates for MTQ 2024
A tip sheet for students
A sheet of online resources to support your students
Topic inspiration
Guide on how to work mathematically
Checklists for students and teachers
Rubric for evaluation and assessment
Examples of past MTQ student work

STAGE 2

COST - $45.00 PER ENTRY or $56.25 PER ENTRY FOR NON-MEMBERS

MTQ ACCESS

Most teachers who are involved with Stage 1 and whose students produce projects will find that there are some wonderful pieces of work that you would love to submit to MAV for judging. This is what Stage 2 is all about. In stage 2 teachers can submit student projects to us (all done online) and also need to be a part of judging other entries. Your students will then receive awards at our MTQ Awards Ceremony based on their achievement.

CLICK ON THE ICONS BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Maths Talent Quest:

Promotes an interest in and increases the awareness of mathematics in real life.
Focuses on building the learning capability of students.
Facilitates the integration of learning outcomes across mathematics and across other curriculum areas within the Victorian Curriculum.
Develops student communication, collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking and other skills.
Encourages students to verify and justify the results of an investigation.
Creates avenues for extension for the more able students.
Allows all students to be rewarded for growth.
Caters for mixed ability teaching and a variety of learning styles and preferences.
Fosters positive attitudes towards mathematics amongst students, teachers and parents to reduce maths anxiety.

Empower mathematical investigation with MTQ!

Maths Talent Quest

Calendar

2024 Dates

From now	Register your school! Registrations open for 2024
2024	Your students can start working on investigations at any time in 2024! All resources will be open once you register for Stage 1.
Thursday 1 August	Registrations close. Last day for investigations uploaded to the registration portal. Instructions on how to submit will be in your Stage 1 online course.
August 8 – 22	Online state judging
Thursday 17 October	MAV State Award Ceremony

Rubric

The rubric can be found and downloaded once you enter your online course upon registering for the free Stage 1 of the MTQ.

Investigations submitted into Stage 2 are judged at least twice against this rubric. We encourge you to use the rubric at a school level to help select your top entries to submit.

Register

Registrations close on Thursday the 1st August 2024.

If submitting projects for judging, thus entering into Stage 2, keep in mind that this is the last date to submit projects in by. File sizes can be no bigger than 35MB.

For assistance with submitting entries, a video with clear step by step instructions can be found on your online MTQ course. To access this, and more resources, register your school's enrollment today! Free registration into Stage 1.

Registrations Open for 2024

Celebrate

Students will be recognised for academic excellence, achievement and growth through various awards categories.

State level certificates will be awarded to:

National Representatives
High Distinction in Achievement
Distinction in Achievement
Credit for Growth
Recognition of Growth

Special awards will be awarded to students who have shown excellence in particular areas:

Jim Trotter Award (Upper Primary excellence in mathematics)
Special Topic Awards
Outstanding Schools Awards

A template for a Certificate of Participation will be placed on the MAV website for schools to download and present to students who have completed the MTQ at a school level.

The 2024 awards celebration will be held on Thursday the 17th of October 2024

Maths Talent Quest examples of student work

We will be providing a variety of professional learning sessions to support teachers as they plan term for and mentor students. All 2024 on demand videos and live webinars can be found on our online course portal, which you can get access to when you register for free for Stage 1.

Here we are providing previous webinars and videos.

Secondary professional learning	Presenter
How we ran the MTQ in 2022 WATCH HERE	Jen Bowden
Student led investigations: MTQ in 2022 WATCH HERE	Jen Bowden and Jess Mount
Primary professional learning	Presenter
How we ran the MTQ in 2022 WATCH HERE	Jen Bowden
Student led investigations: MTQ in 2022 WATCH HERE	Jen Bowden

Students

Welcome students! Please visit this page for resources help you be inspired, plan and complete your MTQ investigation. More resources and information to come!

Pathways

NATIONAL MATHEMATICS TALENT QUEST

The National Mathematics Talent Quest accepts one top entry for each category from states and territories across Australia. For those states that do not have a local competition, schools are welcome to enter their student’s investigations through the Mathematical Association of Victoria’s competition. In 2024, the Maths Association of South Australia will host national judging. The MAV will be responsible for nominating investigations for the National Maths Talent Quest.

Pathways to the National Maths Talent Quest

New South Wales – The Mathematical Association of New South Wales Competition Investigating With Maths
Queensland – The Science Teacher’s Association of Queensland’s Queensland Science Contest (Mathematics Category)
Western Australia – The Mathematical Association of Western Australian Maths Talent Quest
South Australia – Mathematical Association of South Australia Enrichment Project

Tasmania is welcome to enter through the Mathematical Association of Victoria’s Competition.

For enquiries about the National Maths Talent Quest please email Danijela Draskovic

Teacher info

Who can enter the MTQ?

All students from Foundation to Year 12 can enter the Maths Talent Quest. Entries are submitted by a school, unless the student is home-schooled. A maximum of 6 entries per category, per year, per campus level will be accepted for state judging. Entries can be received from:

Individual students
Groups of no more than 6 students
Classes

What can be entered into the MTQ?

Investigations are uploaded onto an online platform when registrations are complete.

We welcome a diverse range of creative presentations of your students’ mathematical investigations! It is importation that investigations findings are:

Communicated so they take no longer than 30 minutes for a judge to interpret. (For example, 30 minutes to read a written report and observe calculations).
Uploaded onto the registration platform in one file (preferred format PDF or PowerPoint) with a maximum file size of 35MB. We suggest you embed large media files into web-based documents such as google doc, goggle slide, student made web sites or you tube.

How do I register student's entries for Stage 2?

A step by step video guide is on the online course portal which can be accessed when you register for free.
Organise and complete judging at school level to select your top entries.
Submit these through online registration, (entries must be uploaded via the portal) by Monday 1 August.
A new field called student growth is required for each entry. Teachers are to identify an area in which students have shown learning growth in completing their investigations (30-word limit).
Nominate your judge/s and complete details online - this is a compulsory component of the MTQ. You are required to judge two entries for every entry your school enters.
Complete the payment details online to ensure your entries are registered.
Cost per entry (inclusive of GST) is $45 for MAV members and $56.25 for non-members. Refunds will only be accepted prior to 1 August (less 50% of entry fee per entry).

How do I judge the MTQ?:

A step by step video tutorial for judging will be provided on your Stage 1 free online course.
Online judging will take place from 8-22 August 2024. MAV will contact you to organise your judging access.
You will be sent specific judging information before judging week.
Judges can choose when they judge, a school is responsible for judging two entries for every entry registered.
Schools will be notified of results. MAV’s decision is final.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can students from different year levels enter the MTQ together?
Investigations should be registered through the higher year level. For example, a group with two Year 6 students and three Year 5 students should be entered into Year 6.

What if I have 8 students in my investigation group?
This should be entered as a class entry.

My students have created a video, how can I enter this?
We suggest using a student friendly platform like YouTube kids and embed the website into a file such as a PDF.

My students have completed an amazing investigation, it will take judges at least three hours to read and understand their findings. Can I still enter this?
You can, but the judges have been given a guideline of 30 minutes to judge each investigation. Part of the skill is communicating an investigation is being able to work within the parameters and present finding in and effective manner.

I have 3 complete entries and want to start registration for the entries but am waiting for some more students to complete their work. Can I start registrations now?
Registrations open now and close on Thurs 1st August 2024. You can start the registration process and add or alter registrations in this time.

We have submitted 7 entries from my school and have 3 judges? How will this work?
We will share the investigations equally between the judges.

Why do I need to comment on my students’ learning growth when I complete the registration?
We have decided to include this field to value all students’ effort and growth, not just academic excellence. Valuing growth is a great way to combat student anxiety towards mathematics and financial literacy. An example comment may be “Dean has shown growth in his understanding of graphs and making choices of graph style to best present the most efficient way to save energy in his home.”

Download teachers info HERE.

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