MATHS IN THE PAPERS April 2002

Music on the internet uses 200 year old maths
Internet

One of the most popular internet activities for teenagers is downloading music. What they are really downloading are streams of numbers, computed using a calculus-based technique developed over 200 years ago. French mathematician Joseph Fourier worked out some equations in the 19th century to describe the way heat disperses. Yamaha, the Japanese electronics company picked up the idea in the 1980s, and developed electronic keyboard instruments. MP3 encoding is also based on Fourier's equations.

Guardian 4/4/02

Gates donates $40m to American education
Education

Bill Gates, the software mogul, is donating more than $40million to American education. The grant will help establish 70 secondary schools, each with no more than 400 pupils. Accelerated learning will be offered at these schools to enable students to enter university with credits towards degrees. The grants will be targeted at racial minorities and poor students, who often leave school early. America is faring badly in the international education league, with maths and science students two years behind their peers in other industrialised countries.

TES 5/4/02

A Beautiful Mind gives boost to maths teaching
Education, Entertainment

A Beautiful Mind, the Oscar-winning film starring Russell Crowe, could give a boost to maths teaching. The film, which tells the story of maths genius John Nash, has enhanced the image of mathematicians. Mathematics is sexy, and teachers could capitalise on this.

TES 5/4/02

Queen Mother's funeral
Statistics

2100 mourners attended the Queen Mother's funeral in Westminster Abbey. Immediately before the funeral, the Abbey's tenor bell tolled every minute for 101 minutes, once for each year of the Queen Mother's life. The congregation included 35 members of the British Royal Family and 25 members of foreign royal families and heads of state.

Daily Telegraph 8/04/02

Mr Numbervator shows kids how to break bricks with their feet
Education

A travelling maths teacher, known as Mr Numbervator, is showing primary pupils how to break bricks with their feet. He believes that self-defence can help students become more focussed on work in class.

TES 12/4/02

Overview of British Monarchy
Statistics

The British Monarchy and its history is a subject few of us know much about. Teaching tends to be fragmented, concentrating on a few specific areas, rather than an overview. The last 1000 years has produced 38 kings or queens, from nine dynasties, and involves a family tree spreading from Scotland to half a dozen European countries.

Willy, Willy, Harry, Steve,

Henry, Dick, John, Henry three.

Then three Edwards, Richard two,

Henry Four, Five, Six, then who?

Edward Four, Five, Dick the Bad,

Two more Henrys, Ned the Lad.

Bloody Mary, she came next,

Then we have our Good Queen Bess.

From Scotland we got James the Vain

Charlie One, Two, James again.

William and Mary, Anna Gloria,

Four Georges, William, Queen Victoria,

Edward, George, the same again,

Now Elizabeth, and the end.

Guardian 16/4/02

Still work to do on national numeracy strategy
Education

OFSTED has reported that, although progress has been made since the introduction of a national numeracy strategy, there is still work to do. In particular, the report found that children make little use of jottings to support their mental strategies. Pupils rarely use the technique of estimating an answer before doing a full calculation, and hence fail to recognise improbable results. Over use of worksheets and commercial schemes was thought to be partly responsible.

Guardian 16/4/02

Housing associations now used by young professionals
Finance

Housing associations, traditionally providing homes for those in housing need, are increasingly being used by young professionals trying to get a foot on the housing ladder. New teachers, needing to pay off existing debts before taking on a mortgage, and seeing their rises in salary outstripped by rising house prices, find it particularly difficult to buy their first homes. New initiatives from housing associations are helping to provide low-cost homes to public sector employees in or near the communities in which they work.

TES 19/04/02

DfES pledge £1.3m for online training for teachers
Education

A new scheme by the Department for Education and Skills is being developed to help teachers in English, maths and science improve their use of technology. A £1.3 million contract has gone to Research Machines to pilot online courses in New Opportunity Fund computer training for teachers.

TES 19/4/02

Russia uses lottery barrel to choose exam questions
Education

As part of a move to combat national corruption, Russia's exam questions for school leavers will be picked out of a lottery barrel on live TV. A standardised national system of literature and maths exams is starting in June, when hundreds of thousands of 11th grade pupils in 89 Russian regions will sit eight-hour composition and maths tests. There are 35 different packets, each containing eight questions, and many regions have opted for a lottery to pick the packet which will be used in their exams as the only fair means of selection.

TES 19/4/02

A fifth of football fans can't work out the odds
Education

Latest research from the Department for Education and Skills suggests that about a fifth of football fans will be unable to work out how good a chance their team has of winning the Premiership. Millions of pounds are thought to be lost on sporting bets because people don't have the numeracy skills to work out statistical chances associated with odds.

Guardian 19/4/02

Stress affects memory
Health

We all have a limited working memory, and anxiety uses up that memory. This makes us less efficient at processing information and makes even simple tasks seem difficult when we are stressed.

TES 19/4/02

Odd Numbers
Statistics

22,000 US bombs have been dropped on Afghanistan since November 2001. As many as 1 in 4 may have missed their targets.

The New York Times won 50% of this year's14 Pulitzer prizes.

The Kohinoor diamond in the Queen Mother's crown was valued at £300,000 before it was cut in 1852.

Astronomers have estimated that there are 750,000 asteroids with a diameter of over 1km.

87% of UK residents believe that science has a positive effect on society.

Observer 21/4/02

Streaming in schools does not generally raise standards
Education

According to research carried out by London University, teaching children in ability groups does not generally raise standards. In maths, grouping by ability helped the brightest students improve, but children in the lowest set knew that little was expected of them and this was reflected in their performance.

Guardian 26/4/02

New National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Science
Education

The Wellcome Trust, a charity that has supported British universities with billions of pounds, is aiming to support a proposed National Centre for Excellence in Science Teaching. Discussions are currently under way with the Government to gain approval for the proposal.

TES 26/04/02

Number of teaching vacancies drop
Education

New figures show a drop in teaching vacancies, when compared to last year's record figures. There is an overall drop from 4,980 to 4,480, mostly due to falling vacancies in the primary sector. This figure is still 370 higher than it was during Labour's first year in government. A continuing decline in primary school population is partly responsible for the decline in figures, as the demand for teachers in this area has lessened. Vacancies for maths teachers currently stand at 380.

TES 26/4/02

The Big Issue statistics
Statistics

Two years ago The Big Issue in the North launched its Big Futures resettlement programme to help vendors. In the year May 2000-2001 2818 supervisions took place. 149 vendors were placed in temporary accommodation and 60 vendors moved into permanent accommodation. 53 vendors moved into employment, 54 vendors received external training and 83 vendors underwent drugs or alcohol detox.

The Big Issue 27/4/02

Odd Numbers
Statistics, Sport

22% of the world's population watched the 1998 world cup final.

39% of 18-24 year-olds voted in the 2001 general election.

Asteroid 1950 DA is a 1km-wide chunk of rock. It has a 1 in 300 chance of hitting earth. However, it is not expected in earth's vicinity for about 800 years.

A postcard has been delivered to a house in Stockport, Manchester, 102 years after it was posted.

An undelivered silk letter has been discovered in the Xuanquanzhi ruins in north-west China. The letter is 2000 years old.

Observer 28/4/02

Edexcel embarassed over unanswerable question
Education

Edexcel, the troubled exam board, has been further embarrassed by its 'unanswerable' maths question. All 2,575 candidates in the AS-level exam attempted the question, with nearly 50% gaining 13 or 14 marks for it, while only 10% failed to achieve more than half marks on the question.

Guardian 29/4/02