The School of Mathematics is committed not only to doing great new research, but to telling people about it! We have a talented team of staff and students who work hard to communicate their love of mathematics to the wider community. Sometimes this is through talks or school masterclasses; sometimes it involves doing exhibitions at science festivals or going out with a roadshow. Whatever the medium, our goal is to change the public perception of mathematics as being dull, boring and useless and to show people that maths is a beautiful, elegant and creative subject which underpins a huge amount of modern society.
The Art-Science Collaborative, otherwise known as ASCUS, has received funding to foster new collaborations between artists and scientists. Our Outreach member Julia Collins is going to team up with artist and crafter Madeleine Shepherd to create a series of soft sculptures out of the humble shirt. Each sculpture will represent a different area of mathematics; for example, topology could be represented by making a shirt into a Klein bottle, while fractals could be created by making a branching series of sleeves. We will be looking for more mathematicians and artists to take part, so watch this space for more information!
The School of Mathematics Outreach team, along with some enthusiastic postgraduates and undergraduates, designed a science festival exhibition around the theme of Game Theory. There were games to suit all temperaments and ages. Small children enjoyed playing with the fluffy noughts and crosses. There was a chance to win some chocolate by mastering the 2-player game of Nim. Trust and logic were pitted against each other in a psychological game called the Balloon Dilemma (based on the Prisoner's Dilemma). Finally, there was a challenge to match 8 celebrities in a set of perfect marriages.
This exhibition was taken to Discover Science in the National Museum of Scotland, as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, and also to St Mary's School in Melrose as part of Bang Goes the Borders science festival.
In 2010 one of our postgraduates, Pamela Docherty, was brave enough to take part in a science engagement scheme called "I'm a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here!". This is a new venture where scientists get the
chance to engage with school pupils about their research and the pupils get a
chance to meet real-life researchers. The novelty is that it is all carried out via live online chats and message boards, so the pupils are free to ask any questions they want and really get to know the personalities of the researchers. Like the X-Factor, the scientists are successively 'voted off', until only one remains to collect the prize.
You can read about Pamela's experiences in an article by EUSci magazine. Why did she sign up, what did she get out of it, and how can you get involved?!
