{"id":5686,"date":"2020-01-13T11:54:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T11:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/portpatrickprimary\/?p=5686"},"modified":"2020-04-04T14:23:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T14:23:57","slug":"im-a-mathematician-web-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/portpatrickprimary\/?p=5686","title":{"rendered":"I’m A Mathematician Web Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

P4-7 have been participating in a maths career based activity called I’m a Mathematician, Get me out of here<\/em>.\u00a0 We have been learning about how maths helps a range of experts do jobs in different fields.<\/p>\n

As in our science web chat session, the boys and girls interacted with the scientists, asking them a range of topical science questions on their field of expertise.\u00a0 The pool of scientists present in the session was varied, representing a balance of genders, a broad spectrum of ethnic groups and specialist fields.\u00a0 The children had an opportunity to explore the diversity of the world of work in this STEM sector.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Mathematician, Get me out of here<\/em>\u00a0is an online, student-led enrichment activity\u00a0where students connect with people who have maths at the heart of their work.<\/p>\n

To get our brains in gear ready for our chatroom session with experts, we watched a very entertaining Christmas Maths lecture: on the mysteries of the never ending number.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rigb.org\/christmas-lectures\/watch\/2006\/the-num8er-my5teries\/lecture-1<\/p>\n

We learned about prime numbers sequences and how species of insect use prime numbers to avoid predators.\u00a0 This links with our science topic of adaptation and evolution.\u00a0 Also, we discovered more on working out formulae and the power of doubling.<\/p>\n

We then moved on to study career profiles for two mathematicians:Chloe Martindale, a cryptographer and William Petterson, a computer scientist.The children worked collectively to compile a list of relevant questions to ask these experts to find out more about how maths is used in their careers.<\/p>\n

We had a 30 minute scheduled chat room today session where we typed in our questions and received responses in real time.<\/p>\n

The children were enthusiastic and even received a tip or two on how to start preparing now for a future career as a mathematician.<\/p>\n

# Successful learners<\/p>\n