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Seasons Greetings from Maths Week Ireland

With Christmas around the corner, we would like to wish you and your families a joyous and peaceful festive season. This newsletter is packed with holiday themed activities and maths news!

To celebrate this festive month we have released this year’s MATHS WEEK ADVENT CALENDAR. Try out our daily Christmas-themed puzzles here.

Please complete our survey below to help us make Maths Week better for you.

In this issue:

• Maths Week post event survey

• Advent STEAM calendar

• What’s On

• News: PISA results

• Beyond the Textbook with Douglas Buchanan

  
  

  On behalf of all the Maths Week team I wish you a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year.

Eoin Gill

Maths Week Ireland Coordinator

2,298 Teachers filled in our pre-survey.

Please help us with our short post-event survey.

Activities

Celebrating the Festive Season

STEAM Advent Calendar

December 1st - December 31st

We're sharing a new activity on our website every day of Advent at 12 pm. Stay tuned for some wonderful maths fun ranging from STEAM projects to computer animation, and making your own Christmas crafts.

Maths Week Certificates 2023

Upcoming Events

Northern Ireland Science Festival

February 15th-25th 2023.

Celebrating its 10th year running, the festival offers a stimulating and wide range of events focusing on the wonders of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. These events present some of the best scientists from NI and beyond to discuss their work, cutting-edge research and what the future might hold.

It marks the maximum tilt of the Northern Hemisphere away from the sun, hence it is the shortest day of the year. (this is a correction from the original newsletter where it erronously stated that the solstice marked the maximum distance from the Sun)

This phenomenon will occur on Fri, Dec 22, 2023 at 3:27 AM.

The winter solstice traditionally marks the middle of winter (officially the beginning of astronomical winter as opposed to meteorological winter). After the solstice the days in the Northern Hemisphere start to get longer and the Sun rises higher in the sky. When the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing its Winter Solstice, the Southern Hemisphere has its Summer Solstice (becasue it is titled towards the Sun)! In past times people (and even today many are) were very vulnerable to the seasons and the solstice was a time of hope. Our ancient ancestors built the Newgrange monumenet over 5,000 years ago and around the time of the solstice, the Sun as it rises illuminates the centre chamber.

The competition was developed and organised by Michael Moynihan  and has been running since 1994. It consists of 15 multiple choice brain problem solving questions to be answered within a 40 minute period. Since 2021 the competition has been run online and available in both English and as Gaeilge.

News

PISA 2022 Results Announced

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)  measures 15-year-olds' performance in reading, math, and science. Data collection for the eighth cycle was scheduled for 2021 but was postponed for a year due to COVID-19. While it is always advisable to interpret these results carefully, this year there is an added caveat in the the samples of students in both North and South didnt conform exactly with PISA standards.

In the Republic, the reading score significantly increased ranking 2nd overall behind Singapore. In Mathematical Literacy the Republic moved from 21st to 11th at 491 points. This was actually 8 scores lower than 2018 as other countries declined even further. However in Northern Ireland the maths scores declined to 475 marginally above the OECD average.  

The results show the negative effects of Covid on education around the world, something that all teachers are well aware of. While the PISA results are a snapshot every few years of one cohort (15 Year Olds) it does provide important information that policy makers and educators should take note of. There is also important data about gender and high and low performing students.

The results do show the importance of supporting initiatives such as Maths Week Ireland to support maths education.

Maths Beyond the Textbook

with Douglas Buchanan

Douglas Buchanan ~ dcbeagleb@gmail.com~ www.dcbeagle.com ~@dcbeagle1

Maths Week Ireland was successful and rewarding for me. It is always an opportunity for the organisers to take you out of your comfort zone, but the challenges are enjoyable and rewarding.

Holy Family School for the Deaf

The most inspiring day during Maths Week Ireland was when I visited the School for the Deaf in Dublin. I have not had any training involving the deaf and I did not know what to expect or what to present, hence a comprehensive “kiosk” menu page.

On arrival I found it was an “ordinary” school with pupils with hearing difficulties. Their work effort and their commitment to solving the puzzles was good and the banter between pupil and me, through a sign language interpreter was fun.

A wonderful experience – thank you to the students and the staff.

Puzzle by Henry Ernest Dudeney - Rearranging squares

In how many different ways may these nine squares be arranged in three tiers of three so that no square shall have a smaller number than its own below it or to the right of it? The first correct arrangement that will occur to you is I 23 at the top, then 4 5 6 in the second row, and 789 at the bottom, and my sketch gives a second arrangement. How many are there altogether?

Christmas Resources

MathSalamander – a wide variety of maths activities covering most age groups.

Seasonal maths from Resourceaholic, again, has a wide range of activities

TheMathematics Shed has a PDF book with many Christmas puzzles

Solution – The Nine Squares

There are forty-two different arrangements. The positions of the I and 9 are fixed. Always place the 2 beneath the 1. Then, if the 3 be beneath the 2there are five arrangements. If the 3 be to the right of the I there are five arrangements with 4 under the 2, five with 5 under the 2, four with 6 under 2, two with 7 under 2. We have thus twenty-one arrangements in all. But the 2might have been always to the right of I, instead of beneath, and then we get twenty-one reversed and reflected arrangements (practically similar)

Final words (for your Christmas cracker collection)

I noticed my math teacher holding a piece of graph paper yesterday.

I’m guessing she’s plotting something.

What did the circle hear from the triangle?

The triangle said, “You’re pointless.”

What does a mathematician use to plough a field?

They use a pro-tractor.

Happy Christmas

Maths week will be back next year from 12th - 20th October !
Stay tuned to our website and social media for updates!