Maths, like ice cream, is something we all loved as children. The problem, according to Flinders University’s Dr Hayden Tronnolone, is that over the years the flavour is slowly sucked out of mathematics.
It’s something last year’s winner of the 2025 SA Science Excellence and Innovation Awards STEMM Educator of the Year - University or RTO title would like to change. In essence, he wants to put the flavour back into maths.
"I had spoken at the awards night about how young people start with an innate love of maths and tend to lose this," Dr Tronnolone said.
"Just like young people naturally love ice cream, they also naturally love maths. Our challenge is to make sure we don’t extinguish this in them by taking away the flavour."
Dr Tronnolone believes we must "transform the curriculum to succeed in engaging students’ interest and confidence in studying university mathematics".
"People feel like they’re either a maths person or they’re not, and if they don’t get something instantly they convince themselves that they’re not a maths person and it’s not for them," he said.
"But it’s like anything else – when you ride a bike for the first time you’re probably not going to be able to ride it, you’ll p
robably fall off a bit, but that doesn’t mean that with some practice you can’t do it."
Dr Tronnolone, who was recognised for his work in designing a unique university course that has almost tripled the annual number of graduates, particularly benefitting regional and rural areas with acute shortages, as well as promoting mathematics with schools, said that it was vitally important that students weren't afraid to fail.
"A good maths teacher is, first of all, someone who’s understanding isn’t going to put that pressure onto people to get things right the first time and who’s going to give students the space to explore and develop those ideas," he said.
"They also really need to understand what it’s like to struggle with something the first time they see them. We fail in so many things and we pick ourselves up, and really the people we see who are successful at maths are those who have repeatedly failed and not let that overcome them."
Dr Tronnolone said it was very important for him to remember, and to convey to his students, that he too was once a student and that he was still learning every day.
"I really want to be a partner with the students, I don’t want to be the boss," he said.
"I want to work with them to support them in what they want to achieve. So that means understanding what their goals are. I have to be open and I have to be vulnerable."
Dr Tronnolone said he would encourage young people to keep studying mathematics in the senior years of high school and into university.
"I think there are just endless applications," he said.
"Maths is so flexible and so powerful that it's really the tool for solving any of these problems that we face."
Applications for the 2026 SA Science Excellence and Innovation Awards are open until 27 April, and this year include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander STEMM Award for the first time. The Commonwealth Bank and Telstra are joint sponsors of the Awards for STEMM Educator of the Year University or RTO, and Primary or Secondary.
To find out more about the awards visit the website (external site) (external site).
