Maths plus laps equals fruity fun at Burringurrah pool

In a new twist on the Go For 2&5 Swim for Fruit program, the kids at Burringurrah remote Aboriginal community, in WA’s Upper Gascoyne region, recently exercised their brains as well as their bodies!

Swim for Fruit is an incentive-based swimming program that encourages children to swim laps at the local pool to earn a healthy afternoon treat of fresh fruit. Burringurrah Remote Community School teacher, Mr Burke, decided to mix things up a bit by assigning the kids a project that involved using maths in the swimming program.

Combining maths with their afternoon lap swimming made for some interesting discoveries for the kids, according to Burringurrah Pool Manager Jamie O’Donohue.

“Each child was asked how long they thought it would take them to swim one lap,” Jamie said. “They then multiplied this by six to get a total time. Hilariously, most were around the 30, 31, 38 minute mark in total.”

“So, they smashed those times, and will look at improving on them in follow up visits. Making maths interesting!”

The Swim for Fruit program is supported in Western Australia by Healthway. Learn more about the benefits of the program at the link below.