Newsletter for the Math Communication Network, a project initiated by IMAGINARY aimed at professionals of math outreach. Learn more about it on the project website.

In this Newsletter:

• Global Math Week
• Black Mathematician Month
• Public exhibitions
• Forthcoming conferences

Remember that you can send us any news you may want to share with the community to network@imaginary.org.

Global Math Week

The Global Math Week 2017 (October 10 - 17, 2017) is a coordinated teaching event all around the world when participants (teachers, schools, institutions) will perform the same workshop and activities across countries. The name for this workshop is “Exploding dots”, it is addressed to primary and secondary school students, and it is freely available as a series of videos, texts and activities for any teacher that wishes to deliver it on the Global Math Week or use it on its courses. The activity can take from 15 minutes of classroom time to any amount of time desired.

Exploding dots is an intuitive method to understand our positional numeral system using dots in boxes. With this method, one can get an understanding of base n numbers, review and understand how we perform the basic operations, but also polynomial operations, geometric series, and other less elementary topics.

The Global Math Week is part of the Global Math Project, founded by math communicator James Tanton to engage people in mathematics worldwide. Their activities, amongst others, include conferences for students and public, workshops with teachers, and meetings with supporting “Ambassadors”, mathematicians and educators that help spreading the project.

Teachers and math communicators are called to participate and spread the word of this event. More than 1.4 million students have already participated in the Exploding dots activities. Ambassadors, supporters and donors are welcome. Learn more at the website or get in contact at info@globalmathproject.org.

Black Mathematician Month

Coinciding with the tradition in some countries of the Black History Month, October is the Black Mathematician Month. This is an effort for public sensiblilzation of the presence of the black minority in the mathematical community, promoted by the Chalkdust magazine. A series of articles written by black mathematicians will appear in that magazine and in other supporting math outreach projects (The Aperiodical, Plus, IMAGINARY), and also in the jounal The Guardian. On October 30th, 2017, there will be a closing ceremony at University College London (UCL), with a talk by Dr Nira Chamberlain and a wine reception, open to everybody.

Public exhibitions Women in Mathematics

The exhibition “Women of mathematics throughout Europe. A gallery of portraits” shows an interesting insight of why women study and have active careers in the mathematical sciences. The gallery contains images and interviews, and it is traveling through Europe, displaying on Libraries, Universities, and other public venues.

Matheliebe at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Matheliebe (German for “math love”) is a math exhibition for all public, with lots of hands-on modules. It has been traveling in Germany for several years, and now it is on display at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum from October 27, 2017, to April 8, 2018.

Second Mathematics of Planet Earth Exhibition

The second iteration of the Mathematics of Planet Earth exhibition will be presented in Imperial College (London, UK) on October 21, 2017. After the first competition and exhibition in 2013, this 2017 edition renews and enlarges the collection of exhibits that will circulate around the world, curated by IMAGINARY. The winners of the 2017 competition will be announced in the London event, in a ceremony with a public lecture and guided tours to the exhibiton. Follow more news on Twitter.

Forthcoming conferences MathsJam Annual Gathering (Staffordshire, United Kingdom, November 11 - 12, 2017)

MathsJam is a multi-national movement of math enthusiasts for meeting in bars and cafés of cities where MatsJam is present, usually once a month, to discuss recreational mathematics, puzzles and riddles, and other mathematical amusements, in a relaxed ambient. You can check if there are MathsJams in your city here, there are 86 cities around the world. Once a year, a big MathsJam Annual Gathering is held. The 2017 edtion will take place on 11th and 12th November, at Staffordshire (United Kingdom). Registration is open.

13th Gathering for Gardner Conference (G4G13) (Atlanta, GA, United States, April 11 - 13, 2018)

Gathering for Gardner are a series of conferences on recreational mathematics, in honor of the math popularizator Martin Gardner. Besides the bi-annual G4G conferences, they also promote the Celebration of Mind movement (or Martin Gardner Day), consisting on public outreach activities happening on October 21st, the birthday of Martin Gardner. This special day is followed by many science and math outreach organizations worldwide.

4th Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication (CMSC 2018) (Wellington, New Zealand, July 21 – 23, 2018)

Scientists, researchers, teachers,  artists of all sorts, will join in the CMSC conference to developing new ways of communicating computational thinking to children and to the public. The topic for this conference will be Computer Science Unplugged, or how to acquire computational thinking without a computer. The call is open for activities in specific art forms (like dance, graphic art, theatre, …) and other presentations. More information to be announced.

 

 

For any issues about the Network, you can email to network@imaginary.org or Daniel Ramos at daniel.ramos@imaginary.org

IMAGINARY  is a non-profit organisation for interactive and open mathematics. It was initiated at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO), an institute of the Leibniz Association. 

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