Highlights
EnTIRe, maths outreach in Africa - MATHSCAMPS
Having presented the first part of the "EnTIRe" project "Happy Classrooms" as well as the second part 2023 Eastern Africa Algebra Research Group Workshop we are now presenting the third part: “Mathscamps ”.
As a reminder, EnTIRe, the SNSF Ambizione project at the Section of Mathematics at the University of Geneva, was successfully completed last year. Besides the research part, it also included a separate outreach section focused on mathematics outreach in nine African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Sud Sudan). EnTIRe was led by Danilo Lewański, a former Senior Researcher in Marcos Mariño's group who now works at the University of Trieste’s Geometry group.
African Maths camps to promote community and accessible education at high school level SNF Ambizione project “EnTIRe” hosted at Section de Mathématiques — Université de Genève (Resp. Scient. Danilo Lewański, Université de Genève and Universitá di Trieste)
In Africa, mathematics in particular proves problematic for both students and teachers: it is often considered one of the most difficult and frustrating subjects in school, while an increasing number of job careers in the African reality require mathematical skills and knowledge.
To address the negative attitude towards the subject, a scalable, inclusive community-based model was developed. The maths camps are two weeks-long residential camps where secondary school students are exposed to exciting and relevant maths topics they would not encounter in school.
Maths camps encourage a positive attitude towards maths through a learner-centred teaching environment and create opportunities for students to develop mathematically and promote technology integration into the teaching and learning of maths. Unlike other maths camps, these are carefully designed to include any participant rather than focusing on the top students, and gender balance is key to the success of the event.
Each maths camp hosts about 40 - 70 high school students. It is organized and facilitated by a local team of mathematicians in 9 African countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Cameroon), together with a team of international volunteers.
Learners are introduced to mathematics-related games and puzzles to develop and enhance their mathematical skills and competencies, and explore, discover and solve problems with the goal of developing numeracy, critical thinking and reasoning skills. The principles guiding maths camps are maths education, empowerment, research and development of new educational resources, use of technology, community, sustainability and scalability.
The Section de Mathématiques at the Université de Genève supported over 14 maths camps throughout the African continent for more the 750 high school students through the SNF Ambizione project EnTIRe of Danilo, in collaboration with Idems International, AMI and SAMI.
Maths camps also wants to show, in a fun way, how everyone can be good at math and how the mathematical way of thinking can be useful in the everyday life as well as in many areas of science. There has been maths camp students later enrolling to maths or STEM University programmes and coming back to the same camps as volunteers!
One of the ideas of the project is to promote viral-scaling of the model to reach very impactful numbers throughout the entire continent while strenghtening local team independence and empowerment.
Volunteers are generally students, PhD candidates and researchers in STEM disciplines, but it can actually be anyone interested. To know more or contact Danilo Lewański.
Partners:
Swiss National Science Foundation,
Section de Mathématiques — Université de Genève
IDEMS International,
INNODEMS Supporting African Maths Initiatives (SAMI)
African Maths Initiatives (AMI)
3 May 2024