From jenni at backfamily.me.uk Tue May 12 14:57:36 2020 From: jenni at backfamily.me.uk (Jenni Back) Date: Tue, 12 May 2020 14:57:36 +0100 Subject: [Maths-Education] The Mathematical Association: a new book and free webinar Message-ID: Dear All I have previously presented at BSRLM and the ATM and MA conferences about a project in which I have been involved in Brighton. It involved developing a programme of study in collaboration with the teachers and children at St Martin?s CE Primary School and has been running for more than 6 years. We developed ways of working initially for children in key stage 2 based on quality free resources particularly those produced by NRICH and the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics MEP resources. We worked on an approach that motivated the children and helped them to find meaning in mathematics. I have now written this up in book form and it has just been published by the Mathematical Association. The book is called Hooked on Mathematics and is published by the Mathematical Association. You can find it here: https://members.m-a.org.uk/Shop/product/1147 . I am doing a free webinar to launch it on Tuesday 28th May at 4pm and you can find details of that here: https://www.m-a.org.uk/primary-events . I do hope that some of you will be able to join me. Best wishes, Jenni jenni at backfamily.me.uk Jenni Back 49 Grovelands Ave Hitchin Herts SG4 0QU Mobile: 07850100074 Landline: 01462625566 From alan at cdnalma.poznan.pl Tue May 12 16:00:27 2020 From: alan at cdnalma.poznan.pl (Alan Rogerson) Date: Tue, 12 May 2020 17:00:27 +0200 Subject: [Maths-Education] King's Cambridge Conference in July 2021 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <438d4f41-e9b5-da80-2221-dda28fa2cf94@cdnalma.poznan.pl> *16*^*th* ***Conference of The Mathematics Education for the Future Project: */*Building on the Past to Prepare for the Future, */ *??????????????????????????????????????????????? King?s College, Cambridge, UK, **July 26-31, 2021.* * ** Dear friends in maths education,**apologies for cross posting. Please find the latest Update for our King's conference at : https://directorymathsed.net/kings-conference/(Updates may go to Downloads Folder) and our Project Home Page: http://math.unipa.it/~grim/21project.htm has ALL past conference proceedings . **I**f you are interested in coming**let us know if **it is**likely to be **(X) certain................ probable..................... possible.................. dependent on funding (uncertain)............. ** Of course this is not in any way a promise or guarantee, only your present intention, which will help us to estimate attendance when we sign the contract with King's. Best wishes..... and please take care and stay safe in these perilous times, Alan and Jasia**? (Conference Co-organisers)** * *Dr. Alan Rogerson* *D.Phil (Oxon), M.Sc., B.Sc., B.A. (Lon), Dip.Ed., Cert. Ed. (Cantab).* *International Coordinator of the Mathematics Education for the Future Project* *Coordinator of the International Directory of Mathematics Educators* From P.Ernest at exeter.ac.uk Sat May 16 18:00:56 2020 From: P.Ernest at exeter.ac.uk (Ernest, Paul) Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 17:00:56 +0000 Subject: [Maths-Education] Fw: Mathematics education and Covid In-Reply-To: References: <88C0A882-EAEF-444E-93D4-683C414F3C82@unb.ca> <6E4384C7-4025-4854-8769-4F05D810B630@unb.ca>, , Message-ID: Dear Colleagues This (below) might seem trivial -- and you will have spotted it - but I think it is still worth saying and provides us with educational opportunities Best wishes to all - and keep safe Paul _________ Paul Ernest Emeritus Professor, Education, Exeter University, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK Homepage http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/education/research/centres/stem/publications/pmej/ The Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal Memories of a misspent youth https://sites.google.com/site/witchescauldron60s/home Why the maths behind covid alert levels makes no sense Will de Freitas, has written a piece explaining why the maths behind covid alert levels makes no sense. He critiques the Government?s ?mathematical models' of Corona Virus. He shows that there are problems with the meanings of the 3 slides used to model the dangers of Covid-19, and our response to it. In the Government?s slides, there is a central equation CAL = R + N. As Will de Freitas, correctly points out ? the units on the LHS and the RHS do not match up. CAL is a discrete number in the range 1 ? 5, so it is a non parametric statistic. Whatever R + N is, it is not of the same kind, being mostly made up of a (large) number of persons. But there is a deeper problem and misunderstanding in this equation. Rates are fundamentally multiplicative terms, so if the RHS of the equation was RxN it would mean something. If 100,000 people are infected (N = 100,000), and R = 1.5 (or 0.5) then RxN = 150,000 (or 50,000) meaning that 100,000 people each infect 1.5 (or 0.5. persons, respectively) each leading to 150,000 (or 50,000) new cases. But as it stands the value of R + N has a value (for large N) about that of N (100,001.5 or 100,000.5 respectively). To misunderstand rates as additive rather than multiplicative is elementary and widely noted among young children who have not made the step to Logical Reasoning, in Piagetian terms. It is rather alarming coming with the full authority of HM Government and the NHS. The misleading use of mathematics to back up the presentation of the Government's Covid Strategy was termed ?number theatre? by David Spiegelhalter. My point here is not a political one, just that it is worrying that no one in No. 10 either spotted the errors, or if they did, did not care for their inaccuracy. For it is well within the grasp of a normal school child to identify the errors and absurdities in the presentation. This provides us with an opportunity that can be exploited in education. The concept of R, the rate of spread of the infection indeed presents a useful concretisation of ratio and proportions which can be exploited in the teaching of these ideas. References Will de Freitas, why the maths behind covid alert levels makes no sense, In The Conversation at https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-why-the-maths-behind-covid-alert-levels-makes-no-sense-138634, retrieved 16 May 2020. Anjana Ahuja, Boris Johnson?s Covid-19 threat alert system is a parody of mathematical precision, New Statesman online, at https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/05/boris-johnson-s-covid-19-threat-alert-system-parody-mathematical, retrieved 16 May 2020. [cid:d2d99efa-e54e-42da-b56d-64d37c7124a3] [cid:1364c71c-162e-40a3-b2cb-39b0721c0990] ________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Although the ISDDE Annual Conference has been delayed until Fall 2021 (see here https://www.isdde.org/2020-isdde-conference-nottingham-uk/ ) the Executive Committee has decided to go ahead with the award of the ISDDE Prize for Excellence in Design for STEM Education this Fall (2020). The call for nominations is below/ can be found at https://www.isdde.org/2020-prizes-call-for-nominations/ . The prize will be announced in the Fall 2020 and we plan to host a special ?virtual event? at which the prizewinner can share insights into his/her work. The timetable for nominations is as follows: 1st announcement: Late March 2020 2nd announcement: Mid May 2020 Initial nominations submitted by June 30th 2020 Full submissions (by invitation) by 1st September 2020 Prize awarded and prizewinner talk Mid-November 2020Nominations are also sought for The Bell Burkhardt Daro Shell Centre Awards for early-career educational designers. Again, see https://www.isdde.org/2020-prizes-call-for-nominations/ . These ?Early designer? awards particularly aim to support the work of early career educational designers and build our design community. Thanks, Geoff Professor Geoff Wake Centre for Research in Mathematics Education, University of Nottingham https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/crme/index.aspx