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Welcome to the September Newsletter
As we approach Maths Week, which runs 16-24 October, we are thrilled to see schools registering on www.mathsweek.ie. There are currently over 143,000 pupils registered from 600 schools across the island. If you haven't already, register you school now and put your school on the Maths Week Map!
In this issue:
Oonagh
Oonagh Trehin,
STEM Engagement Coordinator,
Maths Week Ireland
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Put your school on the map
Teachers are invited to register their class and/or school for Maths Week 2021 (16-24 October).
All registered schools are in with a chance to win one of five Samsung Tablets or a set of Izak9 Cubes!
Complete the registration form HERE.
Once your school is registered, check out our range of resources and start planning your Maths Week activities for 2021 HERE.
You can get involved in Maths Week with:
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Online events
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Online activities and games
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In-school activities
There is a suite of resources available on our website, and we have lots of options for every age so that you can choose what best suits you and your groups. Schools, teachers and families are also welcome to develop your own activities!
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NI4Kids Maths Week Coverage
We have teamed up with Ni4Kids to bring news of Maths Week to parents, teachers and pupils across Northern Ireland. The latest issue features "local heroes" who use maths in their daily jobs. Read it here
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Maths Week TV Returns for 2021
 MathsWeekTV will be live everyday with a show for primary schools at 10:10am and a show for secondary schools at 11:11am. The shows will be approx 30 minutes presentation with some discussion afterwards.
Daily Schedule:
Monday 18
1010 Maths Rocks with Andrew Jeffreys
1111 The shape of escape: The maths of Crowd Behaviour with Aoife Hunt
Tuesday 19
1010 Big and Small with Caroline Ainslie
1111 Bobby Seagull
Wednesday 20
1010 Maths Week Mega Quiz with Franz Schlindwein (1-3rd class or P1-4)
1111 Maths V Sport with Thomas Crawford
Thursday 21
1010 Maths Week Mega Quiz with Franz Schlindwein (5th-6th class or P6-7)
1111 Puzzling Surprises with Rob Eastaway
Friday 22
1010 Cuthbert Sees Double with Sally Lunt
1111 Maths Careers Panel, moderated by Dr Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain
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MATHS WEEK EVENTS
Here is a selection of Maths Week events to give you a flavour of our 2021 line up!
To see more events taking place for Maths Week, visit the events section of the website.
We are adding new events daily.
8MEI Conference on Mathematics Education in Ireland
Friday 15 and Saturday 16 October, Online
The 8th conference on research in Mathematics Education in Ireland, MEI 8, is themed Accessing Mathematics: Inspiring engaged communities. The conference will be hosted by the Institute of Education, Dublin City University and is kindly supported by the Centre for Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning (CASTeL).
Hamilton Lecture 2021: Glimpses into Hyperbolic geometry
Friday 15 October, 7pm, Online
Join us to watch Caroline Series, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick present the 2021 Hamilton Lecture. Following the lecture there will be a 30-minute audience Q&A session with the speaker chaired by Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s University Belfast, Martin Mathieu, MRIA.
Booking essential.
Hamilton Walk
Saturday 16 October, 2pm, Dunsink Observatory
In 2006 Maths Week was established around "Ha milton Day", the 16 October. For, it was on this day in 1834, while walking from Dunsink Observatory into Dublin City that William Rowan Hamilton in a flash of inspiration scraped a formula into the wall of Broome Bridge on the Royal Canal. In 1990 Prof Tony O'Farrell (Maynooth University) established the Hamilton Walk to celebrate this event that is known to mathematicians all over the world.
Booking essential, see here.
Wexford Education Centre STEM Club Celebrating Maths Week
Monday 18 October, 5pm, Online
A set of 6 workshops, exploring a range of resources that can be used to effectively develop active pupil learning in the area of STEM. They are intended to support teachers in facilitating learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in the primary setting. Each webinar shares practical ideas and learning experiences to support teachers in school. The workshops coincide with national STEM weeks such as Maths Week, Science Week, Engineers Week, Code Week & Space Week.
To register for this event visit www.ecwexford.ie.
NALA Maths Week Webinars 2021
Monday 18- Friday 22 October
National Adult Literacy Agency have organised a range of webinars for Maths Week, covering a range of topics including Helping adult learners overcome mathematics anxiety, Developing conceptual understanding of key concepts in financial mathematics: Using practical real life data and examples, and much more. Webinars are free to attend. Registration details to follow. Become a NALA member to stay informed of all their upcoming events.
Virtual Juggling Workshop with Mr Math Weeney
Monday 18 and Friday 22 October, 1.30pm, Online
(Each day, 5 schools will take part through Zoom with the activity aimed at Transition Year students).
The activity involves students trying the skills of juggling and using quadratic graphs to model the path of each ball. All that students will need to bring is 3 pairs of socks each to participate. Teachers will be required to print off a resource booklet for each student which will be emailed in advance. Upon completing the workshop, students will be given a unique composite number and a certificate of participation. They will join the community of jugglers known as 'The Product of Primes'!
To book, please email mathsweek@wit.ie.
Maths Week at Maynooth University – ‘Do Statisticians have Superpowers?’
Thursday 21 October, 10am, Online
Rafael de Andrade Moral has been working as an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Maynooth University since 2018. He is very interested in applying mathematical and statistical tools to solve real-world problems linked to Biology, Ecology, and Environmental Science, and he is also passionate about developing new ways to teach statistics using music.
The audience for this workshop is targeted towards students in TY, 5th and 6th year Maths classes. Booking is required for this event and only one booking is needed per class group. Book here.
Plus many more events to be announced in the coming days!
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COMING EVENTS
Toys4Engineers Careers Talk
Friday 1 October, 10am, Online
The careers talk is aimed at TY, 5th and 6th year students and will cover Why engineering? Software engineering and Apprenticeships.
Email calmast@wit.ie for more details and to book.
Feilte; Transforming Teaching in a Sustainable World
Saturday 2 October, 10am, Online
Attendees will be able to visit online Showcases and Workshops led by teachers that will cover a variety of themes including STEM, digital, collaborative practice, inclusion, cross curricular, languages, teaching methodologies, wellbeing and more!
For full schedule and to book, visit https://hopin.com/events/feilte-2021.
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MATHS WEEK ACTIVITIES
We have lots of activities and ideas to help you to take part in Maths Week in school and at home!
Scoileanna lán-Gaeilge, bain úsáid as na hacmhainní atá ar fáil ar ár suíomh iderlíne chun foghlaim na matamaitice a spreagadh agus straitéisí fadhbréitigh a fhorbairt i luathfhoghlaimeoirí.
Maths at Home
We have developed a series of age appropriate resources to help support the learning of maths at home. You can catch up on all the activities we have released to date at here.
Maths Games
Visit www.mathsweek.ie for a range of maths-based games, including simultaneous simultaneous equations, shape matching, puzzles and much more!
Find maths games here.
Other Maths Fun
We also have lots of resources for hands-on, team-based maths activities that will inspire and motivate pupils, as well as advice on planning maths events, like a puzzle day, maths trail or maths maze.
Get planning here.
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Have you got Maths Eyes?
2021 will see the 10th annual Maths Week Maths Eyes competition take place. Details for this ever-popular competition will be available from 1 October on the Maths Eyes website . There are categories for all ages and you can browse previous entries on their website.
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Maths Bookmark Competition
Rearranging Equations Bookmark Competition
A new activity for Maths Week 2021 from Munster Technological University and IMTA Cork Branch.
Rearranging equations is a vital skill in so many areas and yet it a topic that students often find difficult. This activity asks students to come up with ways of explaining the skill to their peers and create a bookmark. Full details of this competition, the prizes and how to run it in your school will be posted on the Maths Week website next week and in the next newsletter
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TargetBoards
During Maths Week, we will be running a daily Targetboards competition for primary schools. You can get in some practice as the Autumn term TargetBoards will continue for the next two Fridays here
It is an excellent way to get your pupils excited about arithmetic.
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The Maths Week 2021 posters have been sent to all schools on the island. There are posters showing the importance of maths in different careers, with separate "local heroes" for North and South of the Island. Unfortunately we are limited in how many posters we can send out, but you can access images on the website here and project them on your interactive board.
On our website, you can also find some additional resources for use alongside the posters.
Tá na póstaeir ar fáil anseo as Gaeilge freisin.
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Follow us on social media to join in our
Puzzle of the Week every Saturday!
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Follow us on social media for updates:
Facebook: @MathsWeek
Twitter: @mathsweek
Instagram: MathsIreland
LinkedIn: Maths Week Ireland
Get in touch, give feedback and feel free to share your ideas and resources.
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Maths Week has been shortlisted for the THE Awards (Times Higher Education Awards) in the Widening Participation and Outreach category. The THE Awards are widely known as the “Oscars of higher education”. The awards ceremony will be held in London on 25 November this year.
This follows the success of Maths Week at the Education Awards 2021.
Read more here.
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The Irish government has just launched plans to stimulate a national conversation on research and science.
Creating our Future aims to build on the success of research and science in our battle against Covid-19 and ask the public how we can shape a better Ireland through research and science.The conversation will begin in July and will run until November and will be overseen by an Advisory Forum, which was convened by Minister Simon Harris.
The programme will be managed by SFI and we would encourage people to get involved and in particular would urge people to voice the importance of mathematics and its applications.
See here for more details
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 The Maths Map of Ireland
The Maths Map of Ireland is an exciting new project from Maths Week Ireland and the ESB. The project will see the creation of a Maths Map; to include historical places and people relevant to maths; maths trails and contemporary maths figures and places of interest.
If you are interested in contributing please email mathsweek@wit.ie with the subject MATHS MAP.
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DCBEAGLE Challenges
BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK – Maths Week Ireland
Welcome to the new academic year. A new beginning in a changed world. May the disasters of the last academic year not return. The good news for me is that I am “on the road again” hosting my infamous maths challenges around England but sadly my annual trip to Ireland for Maths Week Ireland will not happen and I will be presenting through ZOOM.
Homework is a waste of time
This is always an annual debate but having had “home schooling” for long periods of time it may be worth reconsidering your thoughts about homework. I am sure many parents will have changed their minds on the effectiveness of homework.
The Impact Tutors, a British organisation, has a comprehensive overview from around the world giving opinions regarding homework
The International Debate Education Association website creates starting points for discussion for both sides of the spectrum.
As a teacher who taught maths to 7 to 13 year olds one had to create a stimulating environment to keep up the pupils’ interest - homework was a “downer”!
Everyday maths
From the title of my newsletters and my interest in recreational maths you know that textbooks and the formal approach to maths teaching does not inspire many people. Keep it real! A good friend of mine, Rob Eastaway, is an author, a blogger, a presenter and video maker. His philosophy of maths is to look at maths as an everyday phenomenon and not only talk about “text book” maths. This video, “Top Tips for Helping your Child” is aimed for parents but it may be a useful tool for departmental discussion
Resources links
With so many changes this month for pupils in the northern hemisphere life can be daunting, especially in maths lessons. Learning the teachers’ idiosyncrasies and different approaches to teaching methods can unsettle pupils. To create a secure environment and still building mathematical skills playing cards is an ideal activity. With the links below the pupils can also play the games with their families and friends.
Albert Einstein quote was
"If you can't explain it to a 6 year old, you don't understand it yourself"
Douglas Buchanan ~ dcbeagleb@gmail.com ~ www.dcbeagle.com ~ @dcbeagle1
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