This semester some new activities were introduced into MATH1050. These activities involved applying mathematical concepts learned in the course to real world problems. The activities were:

1. Calculating Blood Alcohol Content (application of functions and derivatives)
2. Calculating the likelihood of head injuries in car crashes (application of area under a curve)
3. Approximating curves in the plane using a Bernstein polynomial (application of vectors)
4. Developing a sustainable tree harvesting policy (application of matrices)
5. Modelling the onset of the human form of mad cow disease (application of arithmetic and geometric sequences).

Each activity involved some pre-reading and then 50 minutes of discussion and problem solving undertaken in groups of 3 - 4 students during the contact class. Five of these activities were run during the semester and they were compulsory (worth 2% each). In this seminar we will discuss the activities, the reasoning behind introducing these activities, what worked well and what didn't work as well, and feedback from the students.