Thursday 16 November 2017, 9am – 3pm
Room S637, Building S, Queensland University of Technology (Gardens Point), Brisbane QLD
This event is now booked out - please contact Anita Ponsaing to be put on a waiting list in case more spaces become available.
This one-day workshop is designed to help teachers give their students an authentic experience of ‘doing maths’ while at the same time supporting success in tests and examinations.
Enabling your students to work in a way that is similar to the way a research mathematician works can dramatically change the classroom experience, for the better. Would you like to find out how, for example, a topic like Pythagoras’ Theorem could be approached a little differently?
In their work, research mathematicians do not generally:
- Sit competitions
- Have daily lessons or lectures
- Study for tests and exams.
So what do they do? Among other things, they use previously learned facts and know-how to solve problems, problems that they initially have no idea how to solve.
In this workshop you will be tasked with solving various ‘simple’ problems, and in doing so, a way of working will reveal itself that offers an alternative to teaching just the calculations associated with mathematical ideas. You will learn how to give your students an authentic experience of ‘doing maths’ in much the same way that professional mathematicians do.
Contact: Anita Ponsaing <anita.ponsaing@unimelb.edu.au>
Cost: Free
More about MathsCraft - the project - can be discovered here
Learning Goals:
- Practical strategies for analysing problem-solving experiences in mathematics
- The ability to create ideas (conjectures), work on them, and try to prove or disprove them
- An experience that simulates mathematical research
AITSL standards addressed in this workshop:
2.1.3 Highly Accomplished Standard - Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
3.6.3 Highly Accomplished Standard - Evaluate and improve teaching programs
6.2.3 Highly Accomplished Standard - Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3.3 Highly Accomplished Standard - Engage with colleagues and improve practice
About Anthony Harradine
Anthony began teaching mathematics in 1984. He has spent the last eleven years trying to better understand his ‘failures’ of the previous twenty-one. His many mentors have taught him lots about mathematics and statistics, problem solving, and research. He likes nothing better than sharing ideas with anyone silly enough to listen. He really likes mathematics.
In the recent past his professional time has been filled with a variety of tasks that include: facilitator of problem-solving workshops, mathematical-person in residence, leader of a unique STEM project (eduKart), Advisory Board Member (The University of Adelaide, Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences), Prime Ministerial working group member (Transforming Learning and the Transmission of Knowledge), consultant, web application developer, curriculum writer and teacher.
Anthony is the Director of the Potts-Baker Institute operating out of Prince Alfred College.
About Anita Ponsaing
Anita is a mathematician by training: she received her PhD in mathematical physics in 2011, after which she spent four years doing maths research in Geneva, Paris, and Melbourne.
She is currently the Outreach Officer for ACEMS, a nationwide research centre in mathematics and statistics. As part of this role she administrates the MathsCraft program, which regularly allows her to do what she loves best: helping students see for themselves the beauty in maths.