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EPSRC Partnerships for Public Engagement (PPE) Programme funds maths roadshows for schools (31 March 2009)

Two roadshows for key stages 3 and 4 school children will be funded by the EPSRC Public Engagement Programme

As part of its Partnerships for Public Engagement Programme, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has just agreed to fund a project - ‘Whose Maths is it anyway?’ – which is a set of new mathematics roadshows for secondary school students in Wales aged 11–16. The total project cost is £132k and EPSRC will fund 80% of this.  Development work on the project will begin in June 2009 and the first roadshows will be presented in schools from October 2010.

The project is a collaboration between the Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences and the universities of Swansea, Cardiff, Bangor and Aberystwyth. The Principal Investigator on the project is Prof Terry Lyons, Director WIMCS. 

 

The project supports two of the main objectives of the PPE scheme: firstly, it will inspire future generations of researchers in engineering and the physical sciences; and secondly, it will build and sustain a community of researchers active in public engagement with the necessary expertise. 

 

The three main components of the proposal are:
 
  • The development and delivery of a new Key Stage 3 (11-14 years old) Roadshow that highlights the range of careers open to mathematicians including role models with short film clips.
  • The development and delivery of a new Key Stage 4 (14-16 years old) Roadshow that illustrates how mathematics can be used to judge information given out in everyday life based on a game show approach with competing teams of students.
  • A training programme for the Roadshow Presenters.