I’m a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

I am in a delightful mood.  My son brought home his “maths challenge” questions and I have spent the last hour working them out.  Alas the competition is serious.  I may not share my ideas and solutions with him.

Earlier this week I was searching the internet and various maths books for multicultural maths games. I had several reasons for doing this:

1)      In the majority world countries, many cultural activities take place outdoors. Thus a strategic game is more likely to be played outside.

2)      Many mathematical developments have taken place in other countries: Arabia, Eygpt, China and India to name but a few.

3)      One of my favourite games, Owari, can be played with stones and holes or circles drawn in sand or mud.  In one cottage where we lived, my husband and I played this game using the patterns on a carpet and chickpeas for counters.

When creating a base on which to play, chalk can be used or stones to scratch a board pattern onto a paving slab.  This is a tradition which has happened for thousands of years.

In terms of extending children’s strategic thinking, use questions such as:

1) From which positions on the board is it possible to make two / three/ four moves?  Sketch a diagram of the board and record your findings.

2) Where are the best places to put your pieces on the board in order to make a good start?  Why?

3) Is it an advantage to start?  Explain.

A good quick reference place for strategy games is http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/ufa10/games.htm. It’s worth remembering that time is needed to develop competency in any of these games. Thus by introducing them at the start of the year, they can be used as an interesting alternative to indoor board games.

A whole class challenge is to play one of the games as two teams with children acting as counters and some members being the key decision makers.

Oh yes and do challenge me at Owari  - I’m out of practice these days!

My son MJ was considerably hacked off yesterday.  He felt cheated that on the last day of the world’s existence children were expected to attend school.

As with the excitement of the Millennium dawning and the possibility of our society crumbling as the computer registered zero, the reality seemed … well … normal.  Just another day.

Now the environmental hardcore have been muttering about the waste of money being poured into subatomic particle research when there are more urgent and pressing concerns such as global warming and climate change.  They have a fair point, I do concede.  I am naturally suspicious of any nuclear research owing to my pacifist Quaker upbringing and oodles of books I read about risks of low and high level radiation as a teenager.

 As part of my Churchill Fellowship, I visited Fermilab (www.fnal.gov), which undertakes a lot of shared projects with Cerne, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/) I was interested in visiting the Lederman Science Education Centre, which is part of Fermilab.  Their teacher training programmes are great and as the theme of my Fellowship is Outdoor Technologies the place appeared a natural fit. 15 000 students from local schools visit to learn about science and nature.  900 teachers participate in training provided by Fermilab staff.  Most of the school visits focus on environmental programmes.

The Fermilab site is quite remarkable in terms of its prairie restoration work.  There are more than 6000 acres of wetlands, woodlands, grasslands and tall-grass prairie as well as a herd of American bison. Being a science facility, the environmental changes have been closely monitored over many years and provide data on the growing diversity of flora and fauna becoming established.  Science researchers mingle with environmental educators and grounds staff over lunch.  The shared facilities and ethos of support and sharing enable all staff to learn and work together.  Strangely the only organisation I’ve come across in the UK with a similar approach is the Wetlands Trust headquarters at Slimbridge (www.wwt.org.uk) .  The common factor appears to be far-sighted founders who valued the natural environment and understood aesthetics and creativity in all its forms.

Arguably particle physics is a financial black hole…but Cerne brought us the technology that created the World Wide Web.  Fermilab pioneered MRI machines through the Tetravon particle accelerator research. There are real-life applications to the disappearing-white-dot-on-the-screen visions which make the physicists “ooh and ah” whilst the rest of us blink and wonder. 

One of the best things about being a teacher are the summer holidays. Six long weeks to fill as you please.  Fantastic! If you have itchy feet and like to travel, then start planning next year’s summer by applying for a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Few other professions have enough holiday time to undertake their Fellowship which must last between 4 and 8 weeks.

I am amazed that more folk haven’t heard about this travel grant which averages £5000 per award.  Back in the late Sixties, the Travelling Fellowships were created as a living memorial following Churchill’s death. Every year approximately 100 awards are made to people from all walks of life.  For example, this year there is a magician from Bath visiting the USA, a Scottish Natural Heritage Officer retracing Uncle George’s last expedition in Nepal, and lots of probation officers finding out about how offenders are dealt with in other countries. The principal aim of the Fellowships is to acquire knowledge overseas to benefit community and country. Or in Sir Winston’s words, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

There are different categories of awards.  That’s why there are many probation officers going travelling this year. Teachers are extraordinarily lucky.  Nearly every year there is a teaching related category, along with expeditions and awards to people under the age of 25.

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust staff who oversee the Fellowships are organised and helpful. After years of having to wade through the quagmires of local authority bureaucracy, it is refreshing to meet an organisation which has a zero tolerance approach to red tape.

For more information and an application form, visit the Trust’s website, www.wcmt.org.uk