Daniel Hayde, Quessia Dessaless and Abbie Hanney help out with the launch of Maths Week
Maths Week, the annual all-island festival to promote maths, will be kicking off tomorrow on Grafton Street in Dublin City, as the public will be treated to street performances during the ‘Maths in the City’ event.
Mathematical musician Paco Gomez will be giving people a taste of the maths behind rhythm, while ‘mathemagician’ Andrew Jeffrey will also be inviting people to take part in various maths games, teasers and challenges.
Maths Week will be running until 21 October and around 100 events are set to take place around Ireland.
Eoin Gill, the co-ordinator of Maths Week Ireland, said the annual event aims to promote a positive image of maths.
“We want people of all ages to enjoy maths and build their maths confidence. Many people think of maths as doing sums in school, but in fact maths is all around us and we all use some amount of maths every day,” he said.
According to the organisers of this year’s events, highlights will include talks on the mathematics behind sports such as rugby, athletics, football and tennis.
There will also be workshops with parents and teachers to focus on methods of helping kids with maths, as well as promoting a positive image of maths.
Maths Week is co-ordinated by Calmast at Waterford Institute of Technology and runs as a partnership of more than 50 institutions and groups, including the universities and institutes of technology, professional bodies, libraries and visitor centres.
Gill said the aim is to “break the cycle of fear” associated with maths. He said the events during Maths Week have been designed to present the subject as interesting, challenging, rewarding and fun.
