The UK Education Minister Elizabeth Truss is going to lead a fact-finding mission to Shanghai in order to find out how children there have become the best in the world at mathematics.
(They) have a can-do attitude to maths, which contrasts with the long-term anti-maths culture that exists here.
Ms Truss
In my opinion, there seems to be an acceptable level of mathematical ignorance in the UK and that needs to be addressed as a cultural issue as much as an educational one.
Let us hope that Ms Truss returns with some good ideas on how to revitalise mathematics education.
Prof. Peter Higgs is interviewed by Prof. Jim Al-Khalili on BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific this Tuesday, 18 February.
Higgs reveals that he did not see the full significance of his initial paper on symmetry breaking and how he got left behind with the further developments for a while before returning to the field in the 1970s.
Prof. Marcus du Sautoy on BBC radio 4 a few of years ago gave a series of short accounts of some of the personalities that shaped modern mathematics. You can find these radio programs on the BBC i player by following the link below.
p.s. I must thank my brother for pointing this out.
Big Telescopes, Big Science is a brand new exhibition which will be unveiled in February at Jodrell Bank visitors centre. the exhibition will include hands-on activities showing how telescopes work and how it is possible to use many smaller telescopes to act as one large telescope.
There will also be running family science shows as part of the half term activities.
The Brighton Science Festival 2014 is going to be held from the 6th February to the 2nd March at various locations throughout the city of Brighton, East Sussex. A list of the events can be found here.
If you are in Brighton or nearby over the above dates I am sure you could find something to interest you.
If you are thinking about studying for a degree in Physics in the UK or Ireland you should check out MyPhysicsCourse. There you will find a listing of all the physics degree courses starting in 2014.
3 Minute Wonder is a competition in which researchers in physics-related fields explain their work to the public in just three minutes.
The participants pitch their work to a panel of four judges and an interested but non-specialist public audience. The points awarded for how well the idea is communicated rather than the science itself. The winner and runner-up will receive a cash prize of £250 and £100 respectively, along with the chance to compete in next year’s grand final at the Institute of Physics headquarters.
Non-members of the Institute of Physics are able to enter the competition.
For the seventh year running the number of students choosing to study A level physics has risen; from 27,368 in 2006 to 35,569 this year. However, students sitting A level exams for all subjects is down by 1.1% as compared to last year.
The government set up the Stimulating Physics Network (SPN) with the aim of getting at least 35,000 students sitting A level physics by 2014. The Institute of Physics has also been very active in promoting physics and physics teaching.
As you can see, the target set by the government has now been reached a year earlier.
Our Stimulating Physics Network is addressing the chronic problem of too few specialist physics teachers in the UK by offering free, bespoke, in-school training to non-specialist science teachers.
Mike Rugnetta asks “Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of Human Creation?”.
Math is invisible. Unlike physics, chemistry, and biology we can’t see it, smell it, or even directly observe it in the universe. And so that has made a lot of really smart people ask, does it actually even EXIST?!?! Similar to the tree falling in the forest, there are people who believe that if no person existed to count, math wouldn’t be around . .at ALL!!!! But is this true? Do we live in a mathless universe? Or if math is a real entity that exists, are there formulas and mathematical concepts out there in the universe that are undiscovered? Or is it all fiction? Whew!! So many questions, so many theories… watch the episode and let us know what you think!
