‘It All Adds Up’ is a series of enrichment events for female students held at Oxford University every January.
Each year the University’s Mathematics Outreach team, who put on the events, invite the AMSP back to participate in the Year 9 and Year 10/11 days. The days aim is to inspire young women to continue with maths education which, fits perfectly with the AMSP aims to:
- Increase the number of students, particularly girls and other under-represented groups, studying Level 3 Mathematics
- Increase the number of students studying STEM degrees and apprenticeships
The session we are asked to run is called “Where can Maths take you?” As well as looking at the many careers that studying maths can lead to, students get to try out some level 3 maths from the careers that interest them the most. The reason for doing this is not only to inspire them with the many careers that use maths but for them to have success at tackling some level 3 maths as we know from research that lack of confidence is a barrier for girls choosing maths post-16.
This year the Year 10 students chose Forensic Scientist (exponentials), ‘Health’ (probability), and Animation/VFX (complex numbers) to try out. The teachers attending the session were keen to get a full copy of the slides so that they could have a go at the other careers with their students back in school!
In the summer, we will be running several “Moving on with Maths” events in partnership with East Midlands universities. Events like this are often the first time many students get to experience a university setting. It is important for students, especially those whom we would like to increase their aspirations, to have this experience as it helps demystify higher education for them. One of favourite things about events like this is watching the students relax into the day as they realise that is ‘cool’ to enjoy maths. At their school, particularly for girls, they maybe one of only a handful of students who love maths.
If you are interested in attending any of these events, please get in touch.
Resources for you to use in your school/college
- If you’re looking for resources and ideas to link careers and the maths curriculum (Gatsby Benchmark 4), then check out our Careers Collection. Our ‘World of Work’ videos, and associated resources, are particularly popular.
- Our online Which Career? panel events run throughout the year; all are welcome to join.
- There is a collection of short videos, ‘Experiences of advanced maths’, where students at university, on different courses, talk about how a level 3 maths qualification has helped them.
- If you are looking to increase the engagement of the female students at your school, there is now a Student Engagement On Demand Professional Development collection which includes a ‘pod’ on Encouraging girls’ participation.
- Finally we have a suite of resources called ‘Why Study Maths?’ that are designed for you to use with parents as well as students. The presentation included is fully editable, so you can customise it to your school and use as much or as little as you like. If you want your Year 10/11 students to have a go at some level 3 maths, then we have some taster lessons that you can share with them. These are on Desmos and can simply be given to the students to do in their own time, or you could run them as a whole class activity.
We would love to know how you get on with these resources so do let us know! Indeed, if you have any comments or requests then do get in touch with your local Area Coordinator or contact us at [email protected] or [email protected]