Maths Sparks 2015 Concludes (posted 01/04/2015)
On March 25th the final Maths Sparks workshop for 2015 was held. These problem solving workshops were designed and presented by School of Mathematical Sciences’ undergraduate and postgraduate students under the guidance of Dr Anthony Cronin and Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin.
Anne Lavelle of the UCD Access Centre invited students from six schools around Dublin to participate and 42 students attended the four week programme of workshops.
The schools involved were:
• Kylemore College
• St. Killian’s Community School, Bray
• Collinstown Park Community College
• Caritas College
• Cabinteely Community School
• St. Tiernan’s Community School
During the Maths Sparks programme these 4th and 5th year secondary school students explored a wide range of topics from Graph Theory to Game Theory and were introduced to the applications of mathematics in areas such as cryptography and computer science. A number of academics also spoke to students on various aspects of Mathematics research including Prof. Gary McGuire (Head of School of Mathematical Sciences, UCD), Prof. Colm Mulcahy (Spelman College, Atlanta, USA), and Dr Adrian O’Hagan (Lecturer in Actuarial Studies, UCD).
The Maths Sparks workshops were held in the Active Learning Rooms in the UCD O’Brien Science Centre where students were encouraged to collaborate on activities and to communicate their mathematical thinking during problem solving.
Students were each awarded a certificate for their participation and feedback for the programme was overwhelmingly positive from teachers, guidance counsellors and the pupils themselves with students noting:
"It made me realise that maths is everywhere"
"I loved everything about it. It was really good and really logical"
"It was really interesting and helped me with my maths"
"It was very good and I would love to come back next year"
"I thought it was a fun, exciting way to learn maths and meet new people"
We would like to thank each of the schools and students for participating in the inaugural year of Maths Sparks and would like to extend our congratulations to the UCD students who volunteered their time and expertise in building these workshops.
