CONSUMER
Can Maths get down with the kids?
08-10-2007
by Emmet Ryan
Educational institutions across Ireland will work together this month to try to give Maths a funkier image among Irish students.
Maths Week Ireland runs from 15 to 19 October and will be co-ordinated by Waterford Institute of Technology's Centre for Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology. The nationwide campaign, which bids to make theorems trendy and calculus cool, will promote the study of Maths among primary, secondary and third-level students at 15 key centres across Ireland. Among the hubs that will be a hive of mathematical activity are NUI Maynooth, the University of Limerick, University College Dublin and Stranmillis University College, Belfast.
The efforts to improve the image of Maths among Irish students follows poor results in Maths and Science subjects in the Leaving Cert this year.
"A lot of people have a negative perception of maths and the biggest problem is confidence; a lot of people feel they can't do it and this is simply not true. Everybody can do Maths to some extent and virtually everybody has the ability to do more," said Maths Week coordinator Eoin Gill. "How often do you hear people say 'I can't do Maths' and yet they can all count their change. People do Maths every single day without even realising it."
The week in mid-October was chosen because it includes Hamilton Day on 16 October, when William Rowan Hamilton discovered Quaternions (hypercomplex numbers) while out walking along the Royal Canal at Cabra in Dublin. The discovery is commemorated every year by the Hamilton Walk from Dunsink Observatory to Broombridge, which is organised by NUI Maynooth, and also by the Royal Irish Academy's Hamilton Lecture.
More information on events taking place during the week can be found at www.mathsweek.ie.
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