A modelling challenge: students modelling problems of their choice

We describe and illustrate activities in a modelling challenge where secondary students learn and apply modelling techniques to real life problems identified by themselves. A two‐day workshop format designed for this purpose has featured for a number of years as the AB Paterson College Mathematical Modelling Challenge, in Queensland Australia. Within this program, small teams of year 10/11 students identified their own modelling context, articulated specific questions, conducted and reported on their subsequent modelling activity verbally and through poster construction. The chapter describes and illustrates the structure and conduct of the program, including the introduction to modelling provided to the students, content from selected projects, and mentor observations on characteristics and outcomes. Evaluation of the program contains an internal dimension involving assessing the outcomes of student activity in terms of recognised modelling criteria, and an external dimension considering the robustness of the program in terms of its operation across parallel groups with different mentors, and its consistency from year to year in the outcomes produced.