Funmaths Roadshow and Liverpool Maths Club: Further Expansion and Developments

The bottom line of the project is that more young people need to be enthused into considering mathematics as an exciting and relevant activity. The Funmaths Roadshow has been developing since 1999, the centenary year of the Liverpool Mathematical Society, which owns the Roadshow. It consists of, so far, 10 'boxes' of 25 activities each. These are at all levels from upper primary to VI form. Each activity is a problem, mounted on laminated A3 card, with appropriate simple equipment if necessary. The problems are suitable for mixed-ability groups. They are available on CD but the Roadshow visits schools---over 150 schools all over the UK (and the Isle of Man) in the two years of the previous PPE award, involving well over 10,000 pupils as well as hundreds of teachers. At these sessions there are student and staff helpers, and also older pupils can assist at sessions with younger ones. The atmosphere in the sessions is always highly enthusiastic.During the previous award an entirely new set of boxes for VI form in schools and colleges was developed, by a team consisting of teachers and students at many levels, and the CD containing the problems was released in October 2005. The new proposal plans to carry forward these developments, and others which were entirely unexpected such as languages other than English (French, Welsh and Scots Gaelic are just being trialled). So far the foreign language trials have been in the UK but other countries, including France and francophone Africa, are under active consideration. Other new directions anticipated are interactive ICT versions of some of the activities, parallel boxes aimed at functional mathematics (core skills) and boxes with statistics and probability as their theme. The webpage will be developed in line with this.A parallel development is the Liverpool Maths Club which aims at about GCSE attainment and whose sessions in school are problem-based. Maths Club and Roadshow are very effective when taken together into a school. Again student helpers, often postgraduates, are used, and the informal atmosphere leads naturally to discussion of research and what mathematicians do. We plan to develop some of the problem sets to be focussed on ideas underlying research, and all the Investigators have close links with research of a practical and accessible nature.Links have been developing with other organizations, SETNET, The Specialist Schools Trust (mathematics and languages) and the Royal Institution Masterclasses particularly. These links will be extended and others built with the new National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics.While the numerous developments over the past 3 years have been the result of team effort, much of the administration and school visiting has been done by Dr Ian Porteous, a retired member of staff at the University of Liverpool. Ian would like to take a less active role, and this proposal is for a manager (research assistant) who will take over these crucial roles.The partners are the Liverpool Mathematical Society, originators and owners of the Funmaths Roadshow, and Liverpool Hope University. The LivMS, though its strong links with teachers on Merseyside, is crucially involved in the development of new materials. LHU is a major provider of initial teacher training and through its Partnership Schools and its current and former PGCE students has an extensive network of connections in the teaching profession. The Roadshow CD has been produced at LHU and the development of ICT materials is beginning there.