What have mathematicians done for us?
Curriculum links:
Maths and ... History
Curriculum links:
Maths and ... Design and Technology
Age range:
13 to 16
Cost:
Other (see below, cancellation policy)
Date:
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Time:
13.00 - 15.00 (with short breaks)
Participating schools:
South Bromsgrove HS, Worcestershire
Participating schools:
King David High School, Manchester
Participating schools:
King Edward VI Five Ways School, Birmingham
Places still available?:
Yes - book a place / create an account: you will need to create an account for your school if this is the first VC you've booked with us since September 2009. Cost: £110 for up to 40 students (more pro rata)
This is a single videoconference session, at which post-graduate and post-doctoral students from the University of Cambridge will tell school students about what mathematicians have done that has made a difference to us. School students will hear about the mathematicians' lives, and what they did. They will also have the opportunity to ask their own questions. At the end, students will be asked to vote for the mathematician they feel has made the greatest contribution to our lives. Full briefing notes will be provided to help students make their decisions.
In previous years, the mathematicians have included Conway, Deutsch, Einstein, Fermat, Feynman, Fourier, Galois, Germain, Kingman, Levi-Civita, Lorenz, Lovelace, Maxwell, Napier, Nash, Nightingale, Poincare, Rayleigh, RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman), Shannon, Stokes, and Turing.
In 2004, Turing won the vote for the mathematician who had done most for us, because of his contribution to the theory behind computers. In 2005, it was Shannons' work on information theory, which has given us the mobile phone, MP3 player and iPod amongst other things, which was widely preferred by the students. In 2006, Einstein won - because the presenter was able to show that much modern technology owes its existence to Einstein's work - and also stressed his role in promoting peace. In both 2007 and 2008, Turing won again. His contribution to the development of modern computing systems is clearly rated highly by today's students!
