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Maths Week September Updates

Welcome to the September Newsletter! 

Maths Week is just around the corner and will take place from the 14th-22nd October.

In this newsletter we are pleased to share with you some of the activities, events and ideas available for you to participate in-person, online or as a celebration in your school or institute.

We now have over 140,000 registered. If you havent registered your group please visit the website now.

If any teachers or mathematicians would like to share resources through the Maths Week website, or have any news for inclusion (we are particularly keen on getting more news from Northern Ireland) please get in touch at mathsweek.wd@setu.ie 

We really hope you enjoy the upcoming Maths Week, as we have plenty of exciting content to share! For more frequent updates, be sure to check our social media links below!

Eoin Gill

Maths Week Ireland Coordinator

In this issue:

• Register Now

• What’s On: Coming Events

• Mathematics Ireland Blog

• Summer Maths - Maths Beyond the Textbook with Douglas Buchanan.

Register now for Maths Week 2023

Maths Week Posters

The Maths Week posters have been put in the post to all schools.

Unfortunately we can only send 5 posters to each school, but you can access digital copies of the posters on the Maths Week website. They are great for starting a conversation about maths and we have additional activities and information on the webpages accompanying the posters.

Tá na póstaeir ar fáil i nGaeilge freisin. 

What’s On

Here is just a selection of events and activities.

Check out Mathsweek.ie for more

Cork Branch IMTA

Tuesday, 3rd October 7pm

Cork Education Support Centre.

Sheila Donegan, co-founder of Maths Week, will give an in-person workshop for the Cork Branch of the IMTA that will explore and demonstrate activities that teachers can use during Maths Week

Bookings can be made here  
Cork IMTA will be giving all teachers a free printed set of Maths classroom posters for their classrooms which can be seen here.

Dublin Branch IMTA

IMTA Dublin Branch

Thursday 5 October at 7:30

Moyle Park College Clondalkin.

Looking for ideas for Maths Week activities? Have ideas and want to share them?

Join IMTA Dublin branch for a workshop led by Maths Week founder, Eoin Gill which will share ideas on many different ways that teachers and students can participate in the festival. For more information dublin@imta.ie

An Online Maths Week Workshop will take place on the evening of 9th October. Please check the events page of the Maths Week website next week for details.  

9th Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland

A reminder for all educators that the 9th Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland will take place on the 13th and 14th of October 2023 at St. Patrick’s Campus, Dublin City University. This is an excellent opportunity to establish connections, share practices and findings of current research within the field of mathematics education.

Date: 13 - 14 October 2023
Location: St Patrick's Campus, Dublin City University

Please register for MEI 9 using the conference registration website: https://www.conftool.com/mei9-2023/.

Keynote Speakers  

Professor Susanne Prediger is a full professor in Mathematics Education at TU Dortmund University, director of the DZLM research network (the German NationalCentre for Mathematics

Dr Niamh O' Meara is a lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of Limerick,deputy director of EPISTEM.

Panel Discussion with of notable scholars on the role of assessment in conceptualising success in mathematics education.

Maths Week Mini and Mega Quizzes

Mathsweek MINI and MEGA quizzes. Pupils in their own class, collaborate to work as one team, competing against hundreds of other classes from across the country. Last year we had more than 20,000 pupils participate in these events, simultaneously. The questions nurture collaboration and communication between classmates and as they are posed by video and not in written form, encourage all pupils to become actively involved. Great fun too!

Mega Quiz will take place on Tuesday 17th October @ 11am

for pupils in 5th/6th and 1st Year / Primaries 6/7 and Year 8

Mini Quiz will take place on Thursday 19th October @ 11am

for pupils in 2nd/3rd Class and Primaries 3/4

There will be a link on the events page shortly with more details

IZAK9 Live

IZAK9LIVE is a maths extravaganza where IZAK9 Users work in teams to solve tasks and problems facilitated live by the Mathsweek and IZAK9 Maths teams. The online facilitation connects thousands of pupils while they complete these tasks, all of which are challenging, rewarding and great fun!

A link to register will be available soon on the events page.

Maths Week Olympiad

Following on from the success of  The Maths Week Olympiad over the past few years, we are delighted to once again team up with Steve Sherman of Living Maths in South Africa to bring The Maths Week Olympiad to school across the island this year.

The Maths Week Olympiad  is an innovative event, whose primary focus is to empower teachers and learners to find creative and concrete ways to help improve the standard of Maths in schools. We realise the importance of encouraging as many learners as possible to have a positive experience with maths so that they continue to make maths a subject choice as they go through their education. We are delighted to be working with Living Maths; a member of ASTEMI.co.za – the official body that represents STEM competitions in South Africa.

We have two sets of papers, one for Northern Ireland and one for the Republic. The Olympiad includes question papers for all classes primary and secondary. This is the only Olympiad of its kind (in the world) to cater for the foundation phase. The papers consist of 20 questions and 5 bonus questions. Every learner that takes part will receive a certificate (either bronze, silver or gold included in the online folder) for achieving marks from1-20 out of 20. Any marks higher than 20 will receive a platinum certificate.

To register forthe Maths Olympiad, please click here

Munster Maths and Science Fair

October 15
Mallow
(All Ages)
 

The Munster Maths and Science fair takes place on Sunday the 16th of October at the Mallow GAA Sports Complex from 11am to 4pm. This will be a great opportunity for the whole family to learn about Maths and Science!

Hamilton Walk October 16
(Adults / secondary schools)

Dunsink Observatory - Broombridge

The walk is organised by the Maths Department at Maynooth University and commemorates Hamilton’s famous creation of a strange new number system, called Quaternions, on the banks of the Royal Canal in Dublin on October 16, 1843. Quaternions now play a fundamental role in computer games and animation, special effects in movies, space navigation, physics, engineering and many other areas. The walk will retrace Hamilton’s steps from Dunsink Observatory to Broombridge in Cabra where he had his Eureka moment.

For more information see event listing

Royal Irish Academy Hamilton Day lecture  

Professor Wendelin Werner

General Public

Royal Irish Academy Royal Irish Academy,

19 Dawson St,

Dublin

October 16 @ 18:30 - 20:00

Maths Matters -  Home School Hub Podcasts

RTE’s excellent Maths Matters short podcasts are all available to listen to for Maths Week 2023.

Listen to Julie and Phil as they bring young people on a journeys through the world of maths. Episodes explore famous mathematicians, numerals, codebreaking, computers and lots more.

You can find them here

Interesting Reading

Maths Ireland blog by Prof Colm Mulcahy traces Mathematical School inspectors from 1844 to recent times. Read it here

Coming Soon: Mathematicians interred in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.

Maths Beyond the Textbook

DCBEAGLE CHALLENGES =

BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK

September 2023

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

Maths is “like A Box of Chocolates”

Yes, that is an adaption of the famous quote in Tom Hank’s film, “Forrest Gump”. This is the title of my sessions I will be presenting during Maths Week Ireland which starts in three weeks’ time. The young mathematicians will be partaking in a series of activities “not” related to maths and, hopefully in the end realise they have inadvertently been “doing maths”.

The analogy is that we do not like all the chocolates in the box and that applies to maths. There are areas in maths teaching which are unpopular but with some sugar-coating it will be more palatable for the pupil. Hence this newsletter

This month’s puzzle (taken from a 1959 publication)

Meeting the trains

At Wurzletown Junction an old lady put her head out of the window and shouted, “Guard! Guard! How long will the journey be from hereto Mudville?”

“All the trains take 5 hours ma’am, either way,” replied the official.

“And how many trains shall I meet on the way?”

This absurd question tickled the guard, but he was ready with his reply:

“A train leaves Wurzletown for Mudville, and also one from Mudville to Wurzletown, at five minutes past every hour.”

How many trains did they meet?

Possessing Passion Is Key To Effective Teaching

I do understand I have the wrong audience for this article but it could be distributed to others in the school. This article comes from Third Space Learning

·       Passion in teaching is not a luxury or a frill but essential to all good practice.

·       It is daunting to be passionate about everything you teach all ofthe time, but effective primary maths teachers aren’t just content with delivering the curriculum but communicating content and ideas with sparks and gusto.  

·       Little or no passion = little or no learning.

·       Maths needs to be taught with energy, and so passion is a prerequisite if we are to inspire, motivate and engage children. Passionate maths teachers see pupils as curious and creative individuals who can be encouraged to explore maths with energy and excitement too.

·       Effective teachers (aka passionate teachers) openly display athirst for knowledge and revel in the opportunity to learn as much as teach.

·       Effective maths teaching is seen in the eyes, the non-verbal gestures, the voice and the maths language they use in class.

·       Passionate teachers also tune into their pupils and remember that maths is not always easy to grasp so they display empathy, compassion, commitment and patience and set up an atmosphere of trust where mistakes are welcomed not ridiculed.    

My “Maths Table”

I have written about this topic in the past. It could accompany the “Nature Table”. This is the time to create or resurrect the table with activities where the “young mathematicians” can partake during wet breaks and spare times during the day.

Ideas:

·      Sudoku and similar activities:

·      Card game rules

·      Activities using counters

Website of the month

www.mathplayground.com has a wealth of resources from worksheet generators, someinteresting word problems and a comprehensive array of logic activities andgames. The tangram example is good and I was hooked on Cat Schmat!

Meeting the trains solution

Nine

Final words

I will leave you with a quote from Mickey Mouse:

“Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes!”