To coincide with the inaugural Maths Week England in 2019, we launched resources and ran a very popular competition which invited students to consider the impact of fast fashion at Christmas. We were delighted to receive very positive feedback from teachers and students and so, for Maths Week England 2021, our data visualisation competition is back!
One issue that the pandemic has highlighted is the importance of being able to make sense of data and the power of being able to communicate the messages that the data shows us clearly. It’s also revealed and heightened existing inequalities in wealth, race, gender, age, education, and geographical location.
We’re thrilled to collaborate with The Equality Trust, who work to improve the quality of life in the UK by reducing economic and social inequality, and visual storyteller, Catherine Madden, to bring you resources and videos which can be used with students in Years 7–13.
Our visualising inequality (by hand) resources provide opportunities for students to explore economic inequality data and graphs, and to consider how hand-drawn data visualisations can be used to tell a story with data. They also link to careers and highlight the importance of mathematical skills in Social Science.
What do we do?
Using our visualising inequality (by hand) resources to help them, students should select one of the four charts to ‘make over’ into hand-drawn data visualisation.
No final works should be created using chart software – all forms of analogue media are acceptable, and digital drawings and collages are also allowed.
Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Creativity
- Clarity – Consider who will see your entry. Are the diagrams and language clear?
- Impact – How do people feel about seeing your entry? What would you like them to do with the information?
How do we enter?
To enter, please submit a photograph of the student’s visualisation with an accompanying short paragraph, audio or video description. We’re interested to hear how students arrived at their idea and how they created it.
Please ensure that entries are submitted by a teacher from your school or college to [email protected], and include the name of your school/college and the year group that the students are in. The deadline for submissions is Saturday 13 November 2021.
If you wish to share student entries on Twitter, you can tag @Advanced_Maths and @equalitytrust and include the hashtags #VisualisingInequality and #MathsWeekEngland. Please ensure that there is no identifiable student information shared without consent, and you follow your school or college’s relevant policies.
What can we win?
There will be prizes available for students in Years 7-8, Years 9-11 and Years 12-13, and the finalists will feature in a special video by The Equality Trust.
Winning visualisations will also be showcased on The Equality Trust, Advanced Maths Support Programme and The Royal Geographical Society websites.