News November 2008

Go to NRICH - What We Do to find out more about all our activities.

Out and about with the team in October

Liz

• has run workshops for KS1, 2 and 3 teachers in Penrith, for primary teachers at Center Parks near Nottingham and for all teaching and support staff at a primary school in Brent. The teachers at a primary school in Hampshire have asked Liz to run a series of three twilight workshops over the course of two terms, looking at problem solving using rich tasks, and the first of these meetings also took place this month.
• ran a morning mathematical games workshop for Year 5 and 6 'gifted and talented' pupils at a Cambridgeshire primary school, which drew children and staff from six other neighbouring schools. The learners returned to school at lunchtime while the teachers stayed on for an afternoon workshop where we discussed the morning's sessions and explored the NRICH website in more detail.
• and Michael Hall (Haringey LA) launched the first day of the Creativity and Confidence Project with teachers from twelve primary schools in the London borough of Haringey. One of the main aims is to work with teachers to select resources which support the five strands of using and applying mathematics within the renewed Primary Framework and embed them in their schemes of work. We will come together every half term over the next academic year to reflect on classroom experiences and refine ideas. Michael and Liz have just completed an article about working with teachers in Haringey over the year 2007-8 , which will appear in the autumn edition of Primary Mathematics, a magazine for primary teachers, published by The Mathematical Association (MA).
• met Nigel Bufton, the Primary Strategy Director for Mathematics, to discuss ways in which the Strategy can direct teachers to, and therefore encourage use of, NRICH resources. Watch this space! During this month, Liz has also attended meetings of the MA Primary Sub-Committee and the MA Professional Development Committee.

Jenny

• ran a Year $8$ master class at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences here in Cambridge for $30$ students. She chose the following problems and activities for the students to work on:
• • Is there a theorem?
  • Which Spinners?
  • Square it
• attended the regional STEM advisory group meeting
• visited two schools involved in the "Engaging Mathematics for all Learners " project
• worked in Ireland as part of their annual "Maths Week". During her time in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, Jenny visited:
• • Marino College in Dublin where she ran two workshops for local Primary teachers and spoke to students on a teacher training programme.
  • Dundalk Institute of Technology where she gave two workshops for secondary students.
  • Stranmillis University College, where she ran workshops for 100 Primary and 100 Secondary students as well as giving a talk to training teachers.

Steve

• ran two problem solving sessions at the Goldman Sachs teacher inspiration day. Teachers engaged with the problems in the teaching and learning of A-level mathematics and left the day full of ideas for use in the classroom.
• continued working on the development of the bioNRICH resources in collaboration with the Cambridge University Transkills Project. The bioNRICH project is scheduled for its first official release on the NRICH website at the start of December, but you can get a sneak preview here.
• met with various stakeholders interested in setting up engNRICH, full of activities designed to help with the teaching and learning of mathematics in engineering. A draft site has been created and will soon be populated with exciting content.
• ran a video conference to several schools on the concepts involved in Proof in mathematics from students in England and South Africa. Many resources will follow from this illuminating day
• along with Ann from the technical team, developed interactive versions of the NRICH mathematical Sudokus. The first of these will appear on the November site. The plan is to retrospectively make the all sudokus interactive.

• continued to work with schools involved in the Engaging Mathematics for all Learners Project . Two of the schools will feature in a Teachers TV programme about our work. Filming for this started this month and will be completed in November.
• started running weekly after school sessions for over forty Year $8$ students on the Enriching Mathematics Project in Tower Hamlets.
• continued to work with students from the schools involved in the Independent-State School Partnership Project in Wimbledon.
• ran two Key Stage $3$ problem solving workshops at the first Teacher Inspiration Day .
• helped with the start of term arrangements for the hundred school placements for STIMULUS volunteers.
• met with members of the Hammersmith and Fulham Education Advisory Team to consider the possibility of running some Professional Development courses for primary and secondary school teachers in the borough.
• continues to develop Stage $3$ resources for the website.
  
  28-10-08

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