Motivate Report for 2001-2002

Conferences

Autumn Term

Two secondary conferences were held, for school years 7 and 10. These were on “Avalanches” and “Boomerangs and Gyroscopes”, and were led by Ian Johnston of the Open University and Hugh Hunt of the Engineering Department at Cambridge University. We had intended to hold a third conference, which was to be a for Years 6 and 7, and to be part of activities held to aid the transition from Primary schools to Secondary, but had to postpone this (to the summer term).

Spring Term

Again, two conferences were held, for school years 5 and 12. These were on “Helicopters” by Jim Flood of the Open University, and “Daisyworld” by Peter Saunders of Kings College, London. We had intended to hold a third conference again, which had to be postponed to the summer term. This was “Liquid Nitrogen: the mathematics of low temperature physics”.

Summer Term

We held 6 conferences, the 4 originally planned for this term, plus the two postponed ones. These were:

“Mazes” for Year 8 students by Chris Budd of Bath University
“Liquid Nitrogen: the mathematics of low temperature physics” for Year 8/9 students by Peter Ford of Bath University
“Fractals” for Year 6/7 students by Alan Beardon of Cambridge University
“Strange Geometries” for Year 8/9 students by Keith Carne of Cambridge University
“Mathemagic” for Years 3/4 students by Rob Eastaway, a maths education consultant
“A Remainder of One” for Year 2 students by Cherri Moseley, a primary teacher.

Chris Budd also did a 1 ½ hour session with us at the IMECT3 conference, in which we held a videoconferenced Master Class with a dozen 12 year-old students in the Glasgow area. This session was well attended by delegates at the conference.

Schools definitely prefer conferences held after the exams in the summer term for most school years, the exception being Year 10 who are half way through a 2 year course, and Year 12, who are often away on field trips at this time of year.

To give an indication of the effect that these conferences can have, here is an excerpt of an e-mail message Chris Budd sent me. One of the schools taking part in the “Mazes” conference had made a maze in their school grounds, and then asked Chris to open it for them:

“Wow – what a difference the videoconference has made. They have a huge maze and a massive display of all the activities that they were involved with for the conference. Just about the whole school turned up for the grand opening of the maze, and they all walked round it … They can’t wait to do another videoconf[erence] next year!”

Here are some quotes from evaluation forms filled in by teachers:

“I personally enjoyed the challenge, something new. My colleagues at … also rose to the challenge … One of them was last seen walking off into the distance muttering ‘big bang or evolution?’”(Newcastle teacher)
“I think some of them were surprised that this was mathematics! Their perception of maths was very number/algebra orientated, and it was a revelation that it could also be so purely geometric. They found this refreshing.” (London teacher)
“But I think for the kids to be able to get up and make a presentation like that … As I said before, I never had the opportunity to do that, and I wish I had, because I think I would have been a much more confident person if I had had the opportunity … “ (Belfast teacher)
“Videoconferencing was definitely a positive experience for the children. It (the ICT element) definitely inspired participation in the maths ‘side’ of the project.” (London teacher)
“I feel you achieved your aim ‘to provide students with the opportunity to do real maths, to be creative, to get away from single right answer problems and to enjoy working together.” (Newcastle teacher)

And some from students:

“I like the project because it is fun and I have learnt a lot.” (year 5 primary student, London)
“I enjoyed researching and presenting my results. Working with a group which included MY BEST FRIEND made it a lot more fun. I would like to participate in a similar event again.” (a year 8 secondary student, London, original capitals)
“I feel that this is a valuable experience and I have improved both my mathematical and presentation skills.” (year 12 Newcastle student)
“This project was very enjoyable and interesting … I think about maths a bit more differently than usual.” (year 7 London secondary student)
“I really liked communicating with other people on a TV” (year 3 Silverdale student)
“A bit nervous at first but got over it immediately” (year 9 London student)
“Doing this conference was good even though it was tiring to sit there for ages (2nd one). 1st was fun. I’d like to do this again.” (year 9 Wednesfield secondary student, referring to the first and second videoconferences)

Website

During the summer we had a new website designed for us by Stuart Church, which can be seen on www.motivate.maths.org. This carries information about the current programme, plus full support material for each conference. It also has an archive of all previous conferences. It is clear that the website has brought enquiries from new schools. We continue to run the webboard to support the students’ in their work, and to encourage them to discuss their discoveries with each other. This is not always successful, because not all schools have computers readily available to students at a time when they are allowed to access the web.

Dissemination of information about Motivate

Talks, Workshops and Courses

I have talked about Motivate at the Association of Mathematics Teachers conference in April 2002, and presented a paper about it at the British Educational Research Association conference this September. I am now also doing courses on the use of an electronic whiteboard in mathematics education. These also give me an opportunity to talk to teachers about the Motivate Project. Next year I expect to give conference sessions about videoconferencing at teachers conferences in Bath and Nottingham.

New website

Our new website has clearly brought us several enquiries, some of which have resulted in bookings from schools for videoconferences. New areas we will reach this way include Nottingham, Hammersmith, Islington and Hull. We have also had publicity about the new site in the TES and on local radio.

New Ventures during 2001-02

We have been awarded a research bursary of £10,000 to allow us to investigate whether videoconferencing encourages students’ mathematical communication skills, and whether it is feasible to use it as a means of regular classroom interaction between schools.

Evaluation

We now have new forms I have designed for the new website, which I hope remove some ambiguities, and which are designed simply to evaluate the conferences, rather than to seek research data. The questionnaires are not completed in a way that can give rigorous data, so this is not seem appropriate. Not all forms are represented in this analysis, just those available at the end of the summer term.

(Note: not all questions are answered by everyone, so %s may not sum to 100)

Analysis of Results – Teachers

Do you think the level of maths input by the presenter was easy for pupils to understand?
7% agreed, 53% thought it difficult, but OK, 33% thought it too difficult.
Do you think there were enough examples given in the talk and on the web to help pupils to understand the topic?
80% thought this was alright, 13% thought there were too few.
Do you consider the language level used by the presenter was at a level appropriate for the pupils?
53% thought it fine, 47% thought it difficult, but OK.
Have you been able to link the maths in the project to maths done in the programme of study your class is following?
40% agreed, 53% said they had been able to link some, 7% said not at all.
To what extent do your pupils do group work in maths class?
13% said a lot, 80% said to some extent, 7% said rarely.
Do pupils explain any mathematics they have done to the whole class or give other kinds of presentations on their mathematical work in school?
13% said a lot, 73% said occasionally, 13% said not at all.
To your knowledge, have pupils in your class previously worked on tasks related to the presenter’s topic? If yes, please circle the appropriate age(s)? 87% said yes, and gave an age, 13% said not.
What difference do you think this experience has made to your pupils’ perception of mathematics?
80% said it had improved it, 7% said it had made no difference, 13% said it had made it less good.
In which of the following ways do you think your pupils’ view of learning mathematics may have changed as a result of this experience?
67% said they had found it important to think more for themselves, 27% said they had seen the value of sharing ideas through discussion with their peers.
Pupils were more able to tackle a new maths problem then you expected.
67% agreed, 20% were neutral, 7% disagreed
Pupils seem more confident about their maths since taking part in the project.
60% agreed, 27% were neutral, 13% disagreed
Pupils are more ready to discuss maths than they were before.
53% agreed, 47% were neutral.
Your experience as a maths teacher with the project has been a positive one.
53% agreed, 47% were neutral.
The level of participation in maths class by pupils has increased since their involvement in the project.
80% agreed, 13% were neutral, 7% disagreed.
Your perception of some pupils’ ability to do maths has changed since their participation in the project.
27% agreed, 53% were neutral, 13% disagreed

Teachers commented that there was not enough time for 6th form students to do
project work of this type (see new ideas for this academic year on this), and also that it
is good for students to take ownership of their own learning and to have the opportunity
to discover their own maths.

Analysis of Results – Students Secondary

Section One

79.4% were able to link some of the topic to maths they already knew. More (12.2%) could link a lot of it than none of it (8.4%)
77.8% thought that the number of examples was just right to aid explanation of the topic, 16.8% thought there were not enough compared to only 4.6% who thought there were too many.
The language was easy to understand for the majority of students (72.5%), 26% found the language a bit difficult to understand but only two respondents (1.5%) found the language very difficult.
The level of difficulty was about right for 68% of students, 28.8% found it a bit difficult but only 3.8% found it too difficult.
68.7% of students said that the experience improved their ability to see the relevance of maths to the real world, 26.7% claimed it made no difference, and 4.6% replied ‘not at all’.
The presenter’s ‘mathematical life story’ was a bit different for 63.4%, 22.2% found it as expected, and only 11.4% found it very different to what they expected.
61.8% claimed their interest in maths had increased ‘a bit’, but more claimed their interest was not raised at all (22.9%) than a lot (15.3%), although it is not a huge margin between the two.
The web board yielded the most disappointing results with the majority (58.4%) saying they did not use it at all, 30.9% used the web board a bit, and only 8.8% used it a lot.

Conclusions from Section One

The response to these questions was positive on the whole, and yielded clearer results than section two . The conferences were clearly at the right level for the majority of students. The biggest disappointment was the web board: the problems arose mainly from students not receiving passwords and user-names, and also not being told about the existence of the web board.

Section Two

The majority (42.4%) agreed that talking about maths problems with classmates is enjoyable, however 30.2% were ambivalent, and 27.6% disagreed.
Most (60.8%) strongly agreed that being able to discuss maths helped them to understand it better, 31.1% agreed, 5.1% were ambivalent, only 3% in total disagreed, giving the most positive result for a question in this section.
41.2% agreed that working at a maths problem in a group changes how you see yourself as a learner, 35.8% were ambivalent possibly because of the ambiguous wording of the question. 14.5% strongly agreed, 6.1% disagreed, 2.3% strongly disagreed.
35.8% strongly agreed, and 32.8% agreed, that being able to discuss maths with other people gives you more confidence in your own ability. 20.6% were ambivalent, while 7.6% disagreed, and only 3.2% strongly disagreed.
34.3% strongly agreed, 33.6% agreed that presenting maths work to people outside your class is a worthwhile experience, 22.9% were ambivalent, 6.8% disagreed, and 2.4% strongly disagreed.
42% agreed that explaining maths to others helps to improve their own ability to do maths, and 38.9% strongly agreed, 14.5% were ambivalent and 3.8% disagreed, only one strongly disagreed.
28.2% agreed that they felt more confident about their ability to do maths as a result of the project, 32.1% strongly agreed, 20.6% were ambivalent, 12.2% disagreed, and 6.8% strongly disagreed. This possibly indicates that expanding learning beyond the classroom in this way is a big boost to confidence in ability, however there were some comments to the effect that students felt shy in front of other schools and were self-conscious that they were being laughed at.
32.1% strongly agreed, 38.9% agreed and 19.9% were ambivalent about answering live question being a good experience, 6.1% disagreed and 1.5% strongly disagreed.
42.7% agreed that working at a maths problem in a group makes you think about maths differently, 22.9% strongly agreed, 21.4% were ambivalent, 9.2% disagreed and 2.3% strongly disagreed.
46.6% strongly agreed that although the maths seemed difficult at first, after working on it over a few weeks you feel you have done well. 29.4% agreed, 16.4% were ambivalent on how well they had done, 3.8% disagreed and 1.5% strongly disagreed that they felt they had done well.
Most encouragingly of all, 39.7% strongly agreed and 19.8% agreed that taking part in this maths project has encouraged them to think of studying maths at higher education level. 17.5% were ambivalent, 12.9% disagreed, and 8.4% strongly disagreed.

Conclusions on Section Two

The results from this section were positive, with most students agreeing or strongly agreeing with the question, and fewer disagreeing. This indicates that the majority found the conference an enjoyable experience that widened their knowledge of maths and increased their own confidence and ability. Many students obviously had a very positive experience, several asked when the next conference was, one left her phone number so that she could be contacted for the next, and one student even wrote a short tribute to Keith Carne on the comments page.

Primary students

A much simpler form was used for primary students. This showed them generally to have enjoyed their experience. They made comments like:

“There was fun maths instead of boring maths.”
I think it should go on. Also think it is clever how we got to speak to other schools.”
“We had to sit down for too long.”

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