Bringing maths to everyone!

15 Nov 2022

After a very busy month of outreach in October with the "Let’s talk about outreach!" conference and Math’émerveille event for the general public, the SwissMAP outreach team was once again out and about last week, enthusiastically sharing their passion for mathematics.

Last week alone, they reached out to over 250 individuals, including professionals, members of the general public, researchers, and schoolchildren, through seven different events. For each event, they prepared a series of hands-on activities specifically designed and tailored for each type of audience. The aim was to help people understand mathematical concepts and why they are important, as well as to spark their curiosity and enquiry in an engaging way.

SwissMAP was here:

7th-11th November: For a week, the Mathscope stand welcomed around 100 Colloque Wright participants, including scientists and members of the general public. What was the link between maths and the conference theme, the five elements (fire, air, earth, water and life): the Platonic solids. On the stand, the public could discover why there are only five regular solids.

8th & 14th November: The first two of four planned visits of the Canton of Geneva’s DIP project ART & SCIENCE 2022 on materials, took place. Local school art teachers brought their classes to visit the UNIGE Scopes. Afterwards, the children were asked to create an artistic representation of what they had seen and learned. Four different classes of around 20 students aged between 10 and 12 came to Mathscope to discover a special materials workshop. The next two visits are scheduled for February 2023.

9th November: The Colloque Wright-Younger Public organized a visit to the UNIGE Scopes after an informal meeting between pupils and the speakers of the Colloquium. The Mathscope welcomed two groups of 20 young children aged between 14 and 19 to experience a workshop created especially for this occasion based on this year’s Colloque Wright topic.

10th November: For this semester’s TecDay our Outreach Officer Shaula Fiorelli visited the Lycée the Denis-de-Rougemont in Neuchatel. She presented the fun interactive workshop “media mistakes” to three groups of 20 students aged between 15 and 18. This workshop, highly appreciated by students, uses real media manipulation examples to make them aware of how data can be presented and interpreted in different ways. During the workshop, participants were also challenged to represent data either conformistically or non-conformistically.

10th November: The national "Futur en tous genres" day focuses on the future and the professional opportunities available to girls and boys. School students 12 to 13 years old were invited to participate at UNIGE and discover new horizons and to think about their future career without preconceived ideas. Our Science Officer Elise Raphael presented her career path & the Mathscope workshop welcomed four groups of 20 children, of which two were girls only.

11th November: As part of their effort to improve STEM teaching and support educators in their professional development, Science on Stage Switzerland brought 20 Swiss school teachers from their network to visit and experience Mathscope and the other UNIGE Scopes.

12th November: Expanding your horizons takes place every two years and aims to promote science amongst girls. The event took place at UNIGE and catered for girls aged 11 - 14 years old. It offered a selection of 25 different workshops amongst which, mathematics. The SwissMAP outreach team presented a combined fun and hands-on workshop to three groups of 10 girls.