A busy MCM-autumn in Slovakia
Autumn was busy with training and implementation of MathCityMap trails across Slovakia.
At the end of September, the Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Nábrežná street in Nové Zámky held a project day, which was attended by all 9th grade pupils. They explored the town centre, the surroundings of the school and also the villages of Branovo and Dvory nad Žitavou by solving MCM trails. The Department of Mathematics of the Charles University in Zámov participated in this beautiful project.
Silvia Haringová, a PhD student from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, taught three groups of full-time and one group of part-time pre-service teachers for primary education students how to create and implement mathematical trails during the workshops. Sona Čeretková did the same activity for future secondary mathematics teachers.
Janka Medová and Silvia Haringová visited Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Duklianska street in Bánovce nad Bebravou, where they conducted training on mathematical trails. A teacher from Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Gorazdova street in Bánovce nad Bebravou prepared a mathematical trail in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes for his 6.A pupils in the school building. Doctoral students Katka Laššová and Silvia Haringová came to help him with the implementation of the trail with his pupils.
Pre-service mathematics teachers Michal Fojtík and Peter Košt’ál prepared trails for pupils from grades 4, 5 and 9 in the primary and lower-secondary school in Slatina nad Bebravou. Janka Medová, Katka Laššová, Silvia Haringová and Peter Košt’ál came to Slatina nad Bebravou to implement the trail.
Another trail took place at the United Catholic School in Nemšová, where the pupils of three classes of grade 5 solved tasks prepared for them by their teachers Veronika Meščánková and Majka Šimáková. The trail included both indoor and outdoor tasks. Janka and Silvia could not miss the realization again.
In the beautiful surroundings of Zaježovské Lazy, a workshop on mathematical trails was held for teachers from all over Slovakia, to whom the creation and implementation of MCM trails was presented by Silvia.
The webinar was another event to promote the trails among teachers from all over Slovakia. It was led by Silvia together with Veronika Bočková. It was attended by more than 150 participants.
Silvia also travelled with the trails to Skalica to Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Vajanského street, where she came to help the teacher Zuzka Chytilova and the 9th grade pupils prepare a trail for the 5th grade pupils.
At the end of October Silvia conducted a training on MathCityMap trails in Stara Ľubovňa for teachers from the primary and lower-secondary school on Komenského street. Together with the teacher Libuše Hnátová, they prepared a trail around the school for the training.
In November, the Science and Technology Week took place in Slovakia. During this Silvia visited St. Mark’s Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Nitra and Silvia helped the teacher Kika Hazuchova, who had prepared the tasks in advance, to upload them to the MathCityMap portal. A few days later, they enacted the trail together with the pupils of 6th and 7th grade. Silvia also visited the grammar school Gymnasium of Ivan Kupec in Hlohovec, where she prepared and implemented a mathematical trail in the main square of Hlohovec for the pupils. During the Week of Science and Technology, Veronika Bočková carried out a home trail aimed at revising natural numbers at the Pribina Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Nitra with all 5th grade pupils.
As part of the course focused on mathematical problem solving, a former student of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, now a teacher, Kristína Čierniková from the Primary and Lower-Secondary School of Pavol Demitra in Dubnica nad Váhom, came to talk to the future primary teachers about the activities she does with her pupils. She also shared with them her experiences with the implementation of mathematical trails, whether outdoors or indoors with the primary pupils, even with the pupils of the first grade.
The mathematical trail focused on fractions, situated in the main building of the University, was attended by pupils from the out-of-school science and mathematics activity, which is supported by national project funded by the Agency for Research and Development APVV-20-0599 Intervention Programme in Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
The last MCM trail so far in this calendar year was tackled by pupils who came to the Open Day at the Faculty of Science and Informatics.
There were also other mathematical trails in this autumn period. We are aware that some were carried out in the Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Kanianka, the grammar school M.R.Štefánik Gymnasium in Nové Mesto nad Váhom, the Private Primary and Lower-Secondary School in Nová Dubnica, the St. Joseph’s United School in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and the Kukučínova Primary School in Detva.
We are delighted with the interest of teachers and schools in MathCityMap and look forward to continuing this great trend in our slovakian community in 2023.
