Category Archives: Prov. Dev.

CMSC will be held in Wellington, New Zealand in 2018.

Conference, Events, Prov. Dev.

The 4th Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication (CMSC 2018) will be held 21–23 July 2018. It is hosted by The Learning Connexion (TLC) in Wellington, New Zealand. Please join scientists, researchers, artists of all sorts in developing new ways of communicating computational thinking to children and to the public. We need activities in specific art forms (like dance, graphic art, theatre, …), we need many more that we can try with children.

New Zealand and other education ministries (Australia, Lithuania, and others) are including computational thinking in their curricula. Now is the time to provide these ministries and teachers with activities in order to implement the computational thinking objectives. We would like a 2018 CMSC goal of producing ten more 
Computer Science Unplugged activities (www.csunplugged.org).

The 2018 CMSC is a great opportunity for this because we have ample lead time to discuss possible activities prior to meeting in New Zealand, and once at TLC we will have the artists of Jonathan and Alice’s Institute to help implement the ideas into an activity. Already Tim, Matt and Brett are working with teachers who will use  the activities.

The website for CMSC New Zealand will be up shortly. Please register.

Previous CMSC conferences are:

3rd)  CMSC2017 University of Luebeck, Germany                                    <http://www.tcs.uni-luebeck.de/sonderseiten/cmsc/>

2nd)  CMSC2014 Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India <https://www.imsc.res.in/~cmsc2014/>

1st)  CMSC2013 Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia <http://www.cdu.edu.au/conference/csmaths/>

Maths PD with Ian Roberts for October 2014

Prov. Dev., ,

Our (my) last maths PD for the year will be this friday. Please reply to this notice by 2pm Thursday so that arrangements can be made. A final email will be sent Thursday afternoon.

Topic: Maths Enrichment activities that can be used this year – all levels. Location: Probably Good Shepherd Lutheran College Howard Springs (near the Howard Springs turnoff from the Stuart highway)

Time: 5 for 5.25pm start If you wish to come to the PD please email me for planning and catering purposes and I’ll confirm the location Thursday. Pre-service teachers are welcomed as are teachers from other disciplines.

DInner afterwards at the school: Pizzas, Bring your own drinks/salads etc to share. My mobile is 0403406999. Please use it for enquiries or late changes. Bye Ian

Second International Conference on Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication (CMSC)

Conference, Events, Prov. Dev.

It is our pleasure to invite you to join us at the Second conference on Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication which will be held at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India from 9-12 December 2014.

We hope that you will participate and share your valuable insights and experiences. Information on the conference can be found at: http://www.imsc.res.in/~cmsc2014/index.html

This is a second in a conference series that explores new ways of helping students achieve 21st Century competencies in mathematics and computer science, which includes math activities across the curriculum.

The first conference in the series, held in Charles Darwin University, Northern Territories, Australia, from August 2 to 8, 2013, saw a unique interaction between artists (theatre, dance, graphic arts) and mathematicians / math educators.

The main theme of the conference is popularizing the rich mathematics underlying computer science, a new kind of mathematics much of the school / college education community is largely untouched by. And yet, this has the potential to unlock a great amount of creativity, currently stifled by the calculus oriented math curricula.

We do NOT wish to discuss how to make math easy, how to teach topic X or Y in the syllabus easily, but to attract children to open problems, to dare reach for gold. We believe that combinatorics and computer science mathematics offer extensive opportunities in this regard.

Importantly, the conference aims to engage research mathematical scientists in outreach and communication. Bringing together researchers, educators and communicators committed to bringing exploration and discovery into classrooms and among the educated public, the conference hopes to explore new ways of thinking initiated by Computer Science Unplugged and other similar efforts in the 1990s.

Unfortunately, travel funding is rather limited, but we will be happy to provide local hospitality. We look forward to your acceptance and participation in CMSC 2014.

Best regards, Fran and jam

— Frances.Rosamond@cdu.edu.au, Charles Darwin University, Darwin

— jam@res.imsc.in    R. Ramanujam, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai

Organizers, CMSC 2014

CSMaths Enrichment with Ian Roberts

Events, Prov. Dev.,

Hi all,
The next Maths PD will be held at St Johns College this Friday 29th August – arrive around 5:15pm for a 5:30 start. When driving into St Johns use the right hand road to the admin/senior school area. The room (room 3?)  is on the right, as you look from the carpark – with a grass area between it and the admin building.

Dinner will follow at the Ayuriz Indonesian Restaurant in Darwin Central. Entrees will be served at 7:30pm and the restaurant closes at 8:30pm so we’ll be quick. MTANT will pay and partners are welcome.

PD maths: As usual we will do some good maths that can be taken straight into the classroom – currently the plan is to begin with a simple setting of perimeter and area (in this case some AMT Challenge problems) but really getting into problem solving, logical steps and number (arithmetic). The content of the motivating problems are accessible to year 5 onwards (and adaptable to younger kids), but the methodology needed is universal, and the chance to interact with other teachers is priceless.

Please RSVP by email before 11am Thursday so that I can pre-book the restaurant with numbers and menu (at Thursday lunchtime). I need

Number (names preferred) of people for PD:              Number for dinner:

My phone is 0403406999 – please let me know about any late changes.

Other matters:

1. Enrichment for kids (you and your kids are invited) Today at 3:15-4:45pm at Good Shepherd, Howard Springs. Friday 29th at St Johns 3:30-5:00pm.

2. Four of us have just returned from another successful maths camp in TiTree. We have now had 12 camps over 6 years and the kids and teachers still love them. This year was a little different as we are now catering for kids through to year 12 at the camp. Thanks to the many who helped so much for the Batchelor camp.

3. Problem for your kids: Which positive integer occurs least/most often in prime numbers under 100? (There are 25 primes under 100).

Hope to see many of Friday. Please bring your friends and pass on  this message. Apologies if cross-posting as one of my mailboxes has disappeared.

Bye
Ian

THREE TOPICS FOR DARWIN/NT TEACHER PROF DEV

Prov. Dev.

alphabetSortingby Ian Roberts   Email: Ian.Roberts@cdu.edu.au   SMS 0403406999

Here are three PD Activities for this  term. Continue reading to read my email about how to respond.  

ACTIVITY 1: Working on Year 10 (or senior) ‘Maths that we’re teaching now’ A small community of teachers with similar issues. Tutorial support for teachers on the maths they are teaching. Tutorials will be driven by needs of teachers and foster collegial support and sharing resources. When: Sunday 9.30-11.30 May  4, 11, 18, 25 Where: Casuarina – venue advised to those who reply Cost: $10 per session. Ask your school to pay, and there’s good coffee. Reply needed: before 1pm Saturday 3rd. A

ACTIVITY 2: Enrichment for kids and teachers  This is based around AMT activities such as the AMT Challenge. Years 5-11. Kids will be challenged. An attempt will be made to identify kids suitable for more enrichment leading to AMT Olympiad opportunities (by Invitation).   Senior school students or those participating in AMT Challenge, Competitions or interested in Maths Olympiad are particularly encouraged. Parents may attend and participate. Teachers are encouraged to use this as a PD and support opportunity, with or without students. Where: St John’s – meet outside the main office of the school at 330pm. When: Wednesday 330-5pm May 7, 14, 21. Then June if demand is there. Cost: $5 per session. Reply needed: before 4pm Monday 5th.

ACTIVITY 3: Supporting numeracy from year 2 to year 12. Next PD: An exciting new venue. Roesbery Middle School (for Friday). Friday evening:  importance of prime numbers. Bringing together number, geometry, clocks, arithmetic, pre-algebra, algebra, polynomials, real and complex numbers, and secret messages. This is related to the two previous PDs this year. We all do some maths with real ideas to take away to your own class level. Saturday: Developing enrichment problems for the MS camp in August. When: Friday May 9 arrive from 5 for a 5.15 start. Finish at 7 sharp. A subsidised maths community dinner follows. Saturday 930am-12 noon at Casuarina. Reply needed: before 4pm Wednesday 7th. Continue reading THREE TOPICS FOR DARWIN/NT TEACHER PROF DEV →