Links to Organisations

Featured Website:

Primitives visualisation of primes and multiples.

Do you have a favourite numeracy or maths site to recommend to colleagues?

Newsletter Winter 2004-2005

Summer Conference – June 2004

Once again the Summer Conference was a big hit. An incredibly wide range of topics and issues were covered with the emphasis very much on developing and supporting classroom practice.

Closing the gap between rhetoric and behaviour – John Hibbs – OU mathematics tutor, OFSTED ITT inspector, ex HMI.

Generating discussion in the mathematics classroom – John Hibbs – OU mathematics tutor, OFSTED ITT inspector, ex HMI. John is happy to offer further information - jm.hibbs@ukonline.co.uk.

Making mathematics count - Karen Spencer, ACME

Satisfying the professor of hard sums: The professional development programme for adult numeracy – Graham Griffiths, LLU+, London South Bank University

Activities for Learning - Anne Haworth, University of Manchester

Census4Learning – Integrating Real Data and ICT – Claire Turner, Centre for Statistical Education. Claire was able to recommend a number of websites – see next page.

Teaching Advanced Mathematics – a new CPD programme - Bernard Murphy, MEI

Using PowerPoint at Level 2 - Joan Ridgeway, Exeter College

Peer tutoring in GCSE Mathematics - Robin Samson, Tower Hamlets College

ICT at Entry Level - Fiona Allan, Godalming College. For many more resources to use with Entry Level students and lots more ideas at other levels too just log on to Fiona’s website: www.mymathssite.co.uk or www.godalming.ac.uk/fiona_allan

Promoting active learning in mathematics – Jane Imrie, DfES Standards Unit

	www.censusatschool.ntu.ac.uk where you can find real data from which you can collect samples results of CensusAtSchool presented in a variety of formats including Tables, Spreadsheets and Graphs worksheets ideas for using the data quizzes and puzzles.
	www.stats4schools.gov.uk has links to many sites such as http://www.your-nation.com/ (which allows you to compare and investigate differences in the countries of the world) and http://science.ntu.ac.uk/rsscse/ (the site of the Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education).
	http://experimentsatschool.lsz.ntu.ac.uk/ where, for example, in Maths, you can do an online experiment to see how much more easily people can identify how many circles there are when they are in recognizable patterns than when they are not.
	www.redbox.gov.uk an interactive resource to teach your pupils about tax and public spending where students (in an interactive game) can try to raise enough money to maintain, or preferably improve, the services offered in The Square.

Celia Hoyles – Chief Adviser for Mathematics

In September 2004 Charles Clarke announced the appointment of Celia Hoyles to the post of Chief Adviser. The role of the new adviser is to:

Be the champion of mathematics, taking an interest in mathematics education from early years, through to schools, higher and further education and the adult skills agenda
Lead in developing, steering and delivering the Mathematics Strategy
Work closely with key stakeholders to implement the commitments made in the Government’s response to Making Mathematics Count, published in June this year.

Professor Hoyles has had a long reserch career at the Institute of Education and is well known in the maths education community. She was a key adviser to the Post-14 Mathematics Inquiry. In January 2004 she was awarded an OBE for her services to mathematics.

Routes of Unity – A combined conference

British Congress of Mathematics Education

30th March – 2nd April 2005

In 2005 all the leading UK mathematical organisations unite in a single conference at Warwick University dedicated to mathematics and mathematics education.

This conference consists of a lively, relevant and exciting set of events - lecture, workshops, exhibitions and social occasions that offers all delegates a rich and rewarding conference experience based on mathematics and mathematical education. Full details can be found at www.bcme6.co.uk .

Maths Careers website launch

The Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS) has recently developed a
Mathscareers website with funding from DfES – the site was launched
this November. It includes a number of case studies in order to supply material for careers advisors and students which aims to encourage them to consider AS/A Mathematics – so, you may wish to tell your local schools. In particular there will be examples of students who took AS/A Mathematics and are now out in the world somewhere, possibly not pursuing anything mathematical, but who feel that their mathematics has benefited them in some way.

The website address is http://www.mathscareers.org.uk . The RSS have also produced a careers promotion video entitled Statisticians Count.

Bletchley Park Education Programme – volunteers please!

Those of you who attended the 2003 Conference will have fond memories of a talk given by Claire Ellis on codes, code-breaking and, of course, the Enigma Machine. Claire has asked us to publicise her search for new volunteers. Claire is the Education Manager for the Bletchley Park Education Programme – this includes school visits, special events, teacher training and outreach. They aim to build on the innovative work of the code breakers to inspire the next generation of problem solvers.

Delivery of the education programme relies very heavily on a group of keen and committed volunteers. The programme is thriving and the ever-increasing popularity of school visits means that they are struggling to keep up with demand. As a result they are appealing to anyone in the area who is able to volunteer their time and energies to come forward. They would like to allow as many students as possible to experience the unique character and history of Bletchley Park – the site of allied code breaking during the Second World War and birthplace of the modern computer.

She is particularly interested in hearing from ex-maths, science or technology teachers, but anyone with an enthusiasm for education and able to commit one or two weekdays a month (or more!).

Please contact Claire to find out more.

Claire Ellis. Education Manager - 01908 377519, cellis@bletchleypark.org.uk

Related links http://bletchleypark.org.uk

http://www.simonsingh.net

Teaching Advanced Maths project
The MEI/Gatsby project "Teaching Advanced Mathematics" is a 15-month CPD course designed to give non-specialist teachers of mathematics the skills and confidence to teach A level mathematics. Much of the leaning is on-line with email and bulletin board support. In addition, participants attend seven days of workshops focusing on issues related to A-level mathematics pedagogy and receive supportive visits from the course leaders. The first cohort enrolled in June 2004 and so now are half way through the course.

Due to significant interest from teachers in the course, Gatsby have extended the funding from three to five years and, as from Easter 2005, the course will be offered at Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan University and, possibly, London South Bank University. Each institution will work with approximately 20 teachers/lecturers. The
course will commence in April 2005 and the closing date for applications is February 25^th. For further details contact Bernard Murphy, bernard@mei-distance.com .

Odds and ends…

It’s sometimes comforting to know that even great minds have their limitations John Von Neumann once said: In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.

The late mathematician Paul Erdos described a mathematician as "a machine for turning coffee into theorems". What might be the equivalent for college lecturers?

It is estimated that upwards of 250,00 mathematical theorems are published each year!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics#Quotes

And lastly… a Theorem: Every horse has an infinite number of legs.

Proof: At the back a horse has two legs, and at the front a horse has fore legs.
So the total number of legs on any horse is two plus fore equals six, an even
number. But six is an odd number of legs for a horse to have! Hence we
have shown that a horse has a number of legs that is both even and odd.
The only number that is both even and odd is infinity, therefore a horse
must have an infinite number of legs. End of proof.

Keith Devlin – now at Stanford University – has written many articles for the Mathematical Association of America. An archive covering a very wide range of topics can be found at http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin%5Farchives.html. An archive of radio interviews with Devlin is on-line at

http://www.stanford.edu/~kdevlin/MathGuy.html

Forthcoming NANAMIC events

Don’t forget… to book YOUR place at these NANAMIC Events in 2005

Friday February 25^th 2005

ICT in Mathematics

Ealing and West Hammersmith College, London

Mike Quigley, SMILE Mathematics

David Martin, Broxtowe College,

Malcolm Swan, University of Nottingham

Thursday April 28^th 2005

Broxtowe College

Nottingham

Mathematics and Dyslexia

Julie Kay, Mark College

Wednesday June 29^th 2005

University of Leicester

Annual Conference and 13^th AGM

http://www.nanamic.org.uk/news/bookingnov2004/NANAMIC_Booking_Form.doc

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