Learn maths by doing maths

March 16, 2012 ajb 3 Comments

Teachers should allow pupils to learn maths by using it rather than focusing on abstract concepts, says an expert.

Judith Burns, Education reporter, BBC News

Mathematics has a reputation of being very hard to learn. It is true that mathematics is a difficult subject that is multilayered and involves abstract thinking. This is compounded by the way in which mathematics in the UK is taught. Quite often it is difficult to see how mathematics is relevant to the everyday world.

For those of us that know, we see mathematics all around us.

Professor Dave Pratt of the Institute of Education argues that teaching methods should help the students engauge with mathematics and see how it is used. Mathematics is not just pure abstract thinking, but is a powerful tool to be employed in many contexts and this should come across in the teaching of the subject.

Read the BBC news report here.

Research work

Odd Jacobi manifolds: general theory and applications to generalised Lie algebroids

March 16, 2012 ajb 5 Comments

My paper “Odd Jacobi manifolds: general theory and applications to generalised Lie algebroids” has been accepted for publication in Extracta Mathematicae.

The paper is an amalgimation of three preprints:

arXiv:1111.4044v3, arXiv:1103.1803v1 and arXiv:1101.1844v3.

Abstract

In this paper we define a Grassmann odd analogue of Jacobi structure on a supermanifold. The basic properties are explored. The construction of odd Jacobi manifolds is then used to reexamine the notion of a Jacobi algebroid. It is shown that Jacobi algebroids can be understood in terms of a kind of curved Q-manifold, which we will refer to as a quasi Q-manifold.

I will post more details in due course.

Research work

Young Researchers in Mathematics 2012 Part 2

March 15, 2012 ajb Leave a comment

Royal Fort House, University of Bristol. Picture courtesy of the YRM 2012 committee.

The Young Researchers in Mathematics Conference is an annual event that aims to involve post-graduate and post-doctoral students at every level. It is a chance to meet and discuss research and ideas with other students from across the country.

As I said in an early post here, I will be attending the YRM 2012 conference and giving a talk.

My talk will be about Higher Contact Structures and Supersymmetry. See an earlier post about such structures here.

The preprint that this talk will be based on can be found here.

I will place a link to the slides in due course. Which reminds me, I better get on with writting them!

Link

YRM2012

General

Hawking Vs Cooper

March 12, 2012 ajb 1 Comment

Professor Stephen Hawking has filmed a cameo for US sitcom The Big Bang Theory, due to be aired next month.

BBC News

Who will win this clash of the physics titans?

Sheldon Cooper, B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D.

Stephen Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA.

Read the BBC news report here.

General

Money to attract 'star scientists' to Wales

March 12, 2012 ajb Leave a comment

A £50m package to attract ‘star scientists’ to Wales has been unveiled.

BBC News

This is great news. Welsh universities could do with this boost given the recent troubles in science funding and the anxiety over the student fees.

Our universities have the opportunity here to work with the best research groups across the world and strive for excellence.

Carwyn Jones, First Minister

Read the BBC news report here.

General

Graduates in the labour market 2012

March 11, 2012 ajb 1 Comment

As I have already talked about in other posts, recent graduates are talking on more and more lower skilled jobs and are increasingly facing longer periods of unemployment.

The Office of National Statistics have complied data about this. Below is a short video outlining their findings.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Hvxw2XNGk]

The trend is to my mind not very healthy for society. First graduates are talking jobs from those that are less skilled. This only compounds the overall unemployment levels of this country. Secondly individuals must be questioning the point of their degree and higher degrees. Financial as well as personal sacrifices are made to gain a good education, unfortunately for many this is not really going to pay off.

The report itself is available in pdf format here.

General Mathematics

Women in Mathematics Day

March 9, 2012 ajb 1 Comment

The next Women in Mathematics Day is going to be on the 27 April 2012 at De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London. This event is organised by the London Mathematical Society

The speakers are:

Jennifer Scott (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) Challenges from a large sparse world
Rachel Camina (Cambridge) The influence of conjugacy class sizes
Christina Goldschmidt (Oxford) The scaling limit of the critical random graph

Find out more here.

General

Graduates are taking low skilled jobs

March 9, 2012 ajb 2 Comments

Recent graduates are more likely to be working in lower-skilled jobs than they were 10 years ago, new figures suggest.

Judith Burns Education reporter, BBC News

We are all suffering from the effects of the poor economic situation. It seems that recent graduates in all subjects are having to take low skilled jobs. Generally the job market is not very healthy, what ever sector you are in.

More than a third of recent graduates were in non-graduate jobs at the end of 2011 – up from about a quarter in 2001.

Judith Burns Education reporter, BBC News

Last year it was reported that engineering graduates are having to take unskilled jobs. This is echoed across science and mathematics. See my earlier blog post here.