Science Week

Science Week starts this weekend and runs in many places around the Republic of Ireland. Science Week has a number of regional festivals offering a range of opportunities for the public to engage with STEM in across Ireland.

NI Science Festival

Teachers and schools in Northern Ireland will have to wait until February 2025 for the 10th Northern Ireland Science festival in February happening in more than 50 venues and already there are some great events listed.

Have You Got Maths Eyes

The deadline for Have you got Maths Eyes? competition is extended to 22 November running so schools still have the chance to submit entries. Maths Eyes is an innovative approach to building a positive image of mathematics. It involves giving learners of all ages a new perspective on the world around them by encouraging them to see everyday objects in terms of maths – be it in terms of numbers, geometric shapes, lengths and angles. There are categories for all ages and prizes in each category.

Miriam Rayan

Maths education expert Miriam Ryan was born 8

December in Westmeath and was educated at first

at UCD. After teaching for a while, she continued

her education at TCD and Cambridge. Since then,

she has been on the staff at St Pat’s, Drumcondra.

Her interests lie in maths education at primary level,

bilingual learners of mathematics, and the initial and

continuing professional development of teachers of

primary mathematics.

Hamsa Venkatakrishnan

She  was born 21 November in Bombay, India, and grew up mostly in London.

She was educated at first at University College London

there, following which she taught for several years.

After postgraduate studies in maths education

at King’s College, London, she lectured at the

University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South

Africa. She is now at DCU, where her interests

are in mathematics education at primary level,

as well as design research, teaching, learning,

curriculum and policy.

Maggie Gough Competition-Results

Maggie Gough Competition, for secondary school students run by the Irish maths Teachers Association was held in Maths Week.

In 2024, the competition saw an impressive participation of 15,795 entries from 166 schools nationwide, reflecting its continued appeal among secondary school students. A total of 230 entries were completed through Irish. The winning design of the trophy was by Ava Murray from Gallen Community School.

Euclid Transmogrified

Dr Susan MacDonald a lecturer in mathematics at SETU has published a book in which she tells the extraordinary story of how in the mid twentieth century, in a well-developed European country, a mathematically solid system of geometry was altered to such an extent that more than one million students were taught foundationally flawed geometry over more than a quarter of a century. The almost unbelievable situation came about in Ireland in the wake of early postcolonial developments that gave rise to an impressionable and unqualified civil service in a position of power over a nation's educational development. This is a multifaceted tale of a perfect storm within mathematics development in Ireland whose result was so destructive that its ramifications continue to be felt into the twenty-first century, forty years after a report of a Royal Irish Academy commission of professors of mathematics described the matter as a national scandal. Euclid Transmogrified: A National Scandal may be of interest to mathematics teachers, lecturers in mathematics, mathematical historians, lecturers in education, students of mathematical education, administrators of mathematical education, science administrators, science journalists and those educated in mathematics in Ireland, especially those born between 1954 and 2000.

IMTA Annual conference

The conference will take place on Saturday November 23rd, in the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise, Co Laois. The keynote speaker at this event will be Professor Jo Boaler, of Stanford University. She will be joined by youcubed co-founder Cathy Williams.

Dr Jo Boaler is one of the world’s most influential thinkers in maths education and Professor of Education at Stanford University. Former roles have included being the Marie Curie Professor of Mathematics Education in England, and a maths teacher in London comprehensive schools. Her PhD won the national award for educational research in the UK. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), and a former president of the International Organization for Women and Mathematics Education (IOWME). She co-founded  www.youcubed.org with Cathy Williams to give teachers, parents and students the resources and ideas they need to inspire and excite students about mathematics.

Dyscalculia Conference for Northern Ireland

A conference on Dyscalculia will be held on 17th January 2025 , 9:30 am onwards. The conference will focus on the different types of learning difficulties faced by those trying to learn maths and how we can affectively manoeuvre around these difficulties.

Maynooth History of Maths Book Launch

A Book launch of the recently published 'Mathematical Book Histories: Printing, Provenances, and Practices of Reading' (Springer, 2024) will take place on Friday the 22nd of November from 4pm in the Russell Library, Maynooth University, Ireland.

Edited by Philip Beeley (University of Oxford) and Ciarán Mac an Bhaird (Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Maynooth University), this book collection focusses on the unique collection of mathematical texts which are housed in the Russell Library. An exhibition of these texts will be on display, with main speakers Rev. Dr Michael Shortall (Acting President of St Patrick's College Maynooth), Professor Paul Moynagh (Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering), and Dr Philip Beeley.

In addition to an brief overview of the scholarly insights gained from the study of this collection, attendees will also hear about other remarkable findings, such as the discovery of details of a long forgotten 17th century transatlantic journey, and an unexpected link to the fictitious (Popish) plot to assassinate Charles II of England.

Games and more

Check on our website for games related to the upcoming festive season and more

Download your Maths Week Participation Certificates

There are  Maths Week certificates available to download on our website for Pre-School, Primary School and Secondary School.