Maths is all around!

"THE CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT ""MATHS IS ALL AREOUND""Mathematics is considered to be one of the most difficult subjects to study. To understand Mathematics and its rules you need to work hard, think and work systematically. It simply demands time and effort. Unfortunately, these days young people are not used to hard work and what they expect is a quick, immediate answer to their questions. They are not patient and motivated enough to learn regularly and hard. What’s even worse, they do not understand that the subject of Mathematics is an important issue in their lives. There are many reasons of this situation. Some students do not have logical minds, some of them lack motivation and they have not mastered some basics in the earlier levels of education. However, the most serious problem is that they do not want to work hard enough to at least comprehend the basics that are important in their everyday lives as well as in their future education or professional lives. This is the problem we find in each of the partner schools. This is why we created the MATHS IS ALL AROUND PROJECT. We do hope that through various activities we planned for our students we will make them work harder, understand and maybe find the subject more interesting. Our motivation is to boost our students’ interest in Maths, providing them with various activities which are practical and applicable to real life. We want to accentuate problem-solving as a basic skill for the 21th century, to prepare our students for their tests not only using “TEACH FOR THE TEST” method. THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT - to develop students' Maths competences- to raise their awareness, self-confidence and motivation in coping with various situations (concerning maths)- to change the educational methods and materials used by Maths (but not only) teachers - to develop students' language skills, self-confidence, cultural awarenessNUMBER AND PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTSOur project allows students from 4 secondary schools (comprehensive schools, a language school, a technical school) from 4 different European countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania) to come together to establish linguistic and intercultural understanding. There will be 4 project meetings with the participation of teachers and pupils (6 pupils and 2 teachers from visiting schools + students and teachers from host schools will participate in them. The project aims to involve students coming from socially and financially challenged backgrounds in equal proportion with students coming from average-income families. ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGYThe activities planned to boost students' motivation to learn Mathematics: - Maths with a difference - series of Maths lessons held regularly in schools- Maths in Geography/Biology/English/ Chemistry etc - series of lessons showing the importance of Maths in these subjects- annual participation in Maths Day / Pi Day (games, competitions, workshops etc)-implementing new teaching methods and tools by teachers of different subjects especially Mathematics (ICT, tablets, gamification, outdoor learning etc)-workshops and training dealing with mnemonics and effective learning methods -job-oriented workshops aimed at making the students realize that plenty of jobs require mathematical skills and competences - Math Marathons - a few hour workshops for school leavers concentrating on exam tasks- HUNTING FOR MATHS - trips to interesting places where students can catch the interest in Maths and Science- competitions and tournaments RESULTS AND IMPACT -the students will increase their competences in many fields (Maths, English, ICT, communication skills, self-confidence etc)- the teachers will increase their competences - new methods and tools will be used by teachers- the schools will become more student-friendly and more attractive for future pupils- there will be a bunch of results available such as - quizes / competitions on partner countries, a brochure containing all the lesson plans and materials (Maths with a difference , Maths in..., competition tasks, Maths/Pi day ideas) – in partners' own languages , a brochure containing the lesson plans, games, competition tasks done during the meetings – in English (both the brochures will be available online as well as published), project website and TS, students’ blogs, a booklet with MATHS IN REAL LIFE materials / lesson plans, films, presentations about schools and towns, Maths calendar, Maths ads/commercials. LONGER TERM BENEFITS The changes introduced in the project will be put into practice at the schools after the project finishes, the new teaching attitude and methods will be implemented, some of them may be used by other schools too."