FunMaths Roadshow: UK-wide Roll-out

趣味数学路演是一项动手数学活动，由利物浦数学协会所有，由学校教师，学生和大学工作人员开发了几年。它由活动组成，美观地制作在层叠的A3卡片上，加上一些简单的配套设备。这些活动被收集到“盒子”中，每个盒子包含25个活动，每个盒子针对一个特定的年龄组。有适合所有年级的学生的材料，小学，中学和六年级的数学思想的范围是非常广泛的。路演针对的是各种能力的孩子，并已成功地在各种学校进行。这些卡片通常放在小桌子上，大约50个孩子组成一个小组进行活动，互相讨论数学问题，并努力找到解决方案。辅助者可以是老师、高年级学生、大学生或工作人员，在需要时给予谨慎的帮助，并判断找到的解决方案是否正确。每个小组都有一张表格，记录他们成功解决了哪些问题。这个活动是高度互动的，当帮助者是年龄较大的学生时，效果尤其好，有时是中学生帮助来自附属小学的学生。在过去的几年里，全国成千上万的学生从路演中受益；仅2007年5月《教师》杂志上的一篇文章就在全国范围内引起了一百多次访问请求。这些问题的文本（总共超过300个）也由利物浦数学协会以CD的形式出售。路演在STEM目录中有特色。路演活动有时伴随着更集中的研讨会。这些是结构化的问题集，附带一个交互式演示，专门针对一个主题。他们鼓励学生探索数学的一个方面，这与他们的学校学习有关，但指向更先进的思想。讲习班通常针对较有能力获得普通中等教育证书的学生和六年级学生。所有的工作坊都在非常成功的利物浦大学数学俱乐部进行试验，该俱乐部吸引了30-40名热情的年轻人，通常年龄在13-18岁之间，在学年中每月一个星期六。其他一些组织，如国家数学卓越教学中心（NCETM）、高等数学网络和英国皇家学会（Ri），都积极地在自己的活动中采用路演材料。在英国文化协会的帮助下，这些材料已经被翻译了几次，在法国成功举办了活动。活动可以有公众参与，比如一年一度的科学节。路演的成功使得利物浦的一个中心无法提供全国性的赛事服务。该提案旨在通过一系列中心在全国范围内推出路演和相应的研讨会。已经有几个迹象表明，人们对运营这些中心有浓厚的兴趣。一个非常重要的特点是，一旦建立起来，预计这些中心将成为自给自足的，利用当地资金、学校的支付或专门的教师时间（就像谢菲尔德现有的一个中心一样）。利用个人防护装备赠款雇用的现任外联干事和一名助理将再雇用两年，指导设立这些中心，并在开展路演方面提供初步帮助。路演材料和工作坊的其他发展也在计划中，在已经涵盖的基础上增加更多的主题，再次在数学俱乐部试用。

The FunMaths Roadshow is a hands-on mathematical activity, owned by the Liverpool Mathematical Society, which has been developed over several years by schoolteachers, students and university staff. It consists of activities, attractively produced on laminated A3 cards, plus some simple accompanying equipment. The activities are collected into 'Boxes', each Box containing 25 activities and each Box being aimed at a particular age-group. There is appropriate material for school pupils from all years, Primary, Secondary and Sixth Form and the range of mathematical ideas which feed into the material is very wide. The Roadshow is aimed at children of all abilities, and has been successfully run in all kinds of schools. The cards are typically set up on small tables and classes of about 50 children tackle the activities in small groups, talking to each other about the mathematics and working towards a solution. Helpers, who can be teachers, older pupils, university students or staff, give discreet assistance as needed and judge whether the solutions found are correct. Each group has a sheet to record which problems they have successfully solved. The activity is highly interactive, and works especially well when the helpers are older pupils, sometimes secondary school pupils helping those from feeder primary schools. Tens of thousands of pupils all over the country have benefitted from the Roadshow over the last few years; an article in 'Teachers' magazine in May 2007 alone produced over a hundred requests for visits nationwide. The texts of the problems (over 300 in all) are also sold as a CD by the Liverpool Mathematical Society. The Roadshow is featured in the STEM directory.Roadshow events are sometimes accompanied by more concentrated Workshops. These are structured sets of problems, with an accompanying interactive presentation, devoted to a single topic. They encourage pupils to explore an aspect of mathematics which is related to their school studies but points towards more advanced ideas. Workshops are typically aimed at more able pupils of GCSE attainment, and sixth formers. All Workshops are trialled at the highly successful Liverpool University Maths Club, which attracts 30-40 enthusiastic youngsters usually aged 13-18, one Saturday per month during the school year.Several other organizations such as the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), the Further Maths Network and the Royal Institution (Ri) have enthusiastically adopted Roadshow materials for their own events. Several translations of the materials have been made and events run successfully in France, aided by the British Council. Events can involve the public, as with the annual Festivals of Science.The success of the Roadshow has made it impracticable for one centre, in Liverpool, to provide a national service in running events. The proposal seeks to roll out the Roadshow and the accompanying Workshops nationally through a series of Hubs. There have already been several indications of strong interest in running these Hubs. A very important feature is that, once set up, it is expected that the Hubs will become self-sustaining, using local funding, payments from schools or (as with one existing hub, in Sheffield) dedicated teacher time. The current Outreach Officer employed on a PPE grant, and an assistant, would be employed for a further two years to guide the setting up of these hubs and provide initial help in running Roadshows. Other developments of the Roadshow materials and Workshops are also planned, adding further topics to those already covered, again trialled at the Maths Club.