Author: Isabella Gogesch

We are delighted to welcome two new Slovakian partner schools: Prince Pribina Primary School in Nitra and Spojená škola sv. Jozefa Primary School in Nové Mesto nad Váhom.

Prince Pribina Primary School has created 6 Math Trails with a total of 57 tasks. The trails have been downloaded over 60 times.

The trails can be found under the following links: 1818228, 1514734, 3915577, 4716942, 2616943, 5616945, 5612214.

MathCityMap came to the school through Veronika Bočková, after which Katarína Máčiková introduced the Math Trails to the summer school. Dominika Takacova then launched a series of Christmas-themed trails starting on St. Nicholas Day. The tasks involved simple addition and subtraction problems in the number range up to 100. Over 60 second-graders took part in the trails.

The next trails are planned around Easter and towards the end of the school year. We are already very excited to see what great new tasks and trails there will be in the near future!

The Spojená škola sv. Jozefa elementary school also created two exciting trails (4710982 and 3411563), which were also completed by over 60 learners. In the first trail, the children received the tasks on paper and then entered the solutions online in the classroom. In the second trail, the solutions were entered directly into the smartphones on site. They found that good reading comprehension and good measurement accuracy are very important.

We are also very much looking forward to more exciting trails and tasks!

The packages with the official partner school badge and the MCM measuring instruments are already on their way to the schools and we are already looking forward to receiving more applications from all over the world.

All further information on the partner school program and the requirements for the application can be found in the article on the first MCM partner school as well as on the homepage of our MaSCE³ project.

The MathCityMap year 2023 was characterized by great media interest in Slovakia. The MathCityMap team in Nitra consists of Veronika Bočková, Michal Fojtík, Silvia Haringová, Janka Medová and Katarína Laššová from the Department of Mathematics at Constantine University of Philosophy (UKF), but they also draw on the expertise of other colleagues in the department. In recent years, math trails have become part of the preparation of future math teachers for all grades. The team from Nitra has trained more than 750 math teachers in education, conducted math trails in more than 20 Slovak schools and prepared workshops for future teachers also abroad. In 2023, the general public and the media became aware of their campaign for the first time.

At the beginning of the calendar year, on January 20, 2023, an article about math trails appeared in the Nitra district newspaper. Readers were able to find out what the math trails are, what their goal is, who can participate in them and which mathematical tasks cause problems for learners. The interview was conducted with PhD student Silvia Haringová.

On February 28, 2023, university students gathered to hear the inspiring stories of their fellow students. During the evening, there were presentations about math trails, successful research in the field of molecular biology at UKF and the importance of volunteering for the further development of students. The Math Trails were also presented by Silvia Haringová.

The SCIENCE ON DOSAH science portal offers a wealth of news, information and entertainment from the world of science and technology. In a single place you can discover everything about science, research, events and other interesting activities in this field in Slovakia.

On May 10, 2023, Janka Medová and Silvia Haringová from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics at UKF spoke about Math Trails in the podcast of the VEDA NA DOSAH portal in Slovak.

Reflex is a daily magazine consisting of stories whose main heroes are the citizens of Slovakia. It is broadcast in the afternoons by Slovakia’s largest private television station, TV Markíza. It consists of strong human stories full of emotions, investigative reports, interesting facts and showbiz. Every day brings new topics, a different atmosphere, a different mood. Veronika Bočková and her students, Janka Medová and Silvia Haringová, were part of this program on June 30, 2023.

Quark Magazine is a magazine about science and technology for all curious people that explains even complex things in simple language. Every month it brings the latest information about science, research, discoveries and new technologies in Slovakia and around the world on 56 pages. The August issue includes four pages about Math Trails with MathCityMap. The questions were answered by Janka Medová and Silvia Haringová.

Every year, an autumn school is organized by Zuzana and Peter Bero, who have been providing math textbooks and workbooks to teachers and students at primary and secondary schools for more than twenty years. This year, Silvia Haringová had the opportunity to give a lecture there. On September 29, 2023, she presented the “Mathematics trails and Matrix” project to more than 100 teachers in training.

The second webinar on math trails was held on November 8, 2023 via the Facebook platform. Around 300 people expressed their interest in this event. In addition to basic information, participants learned how to implement and create mathematical paths. They received useful advice on creating tasks and paths and were informed about the advantages of the Matrix project. The webinar was led by Silvia Haringová, Veronika Bočková and Janka Medová.

Nočná pyramída is a Slovakian radio program broadcast on Radio Slovensko. Radio Slovensko’s night program offers exclusive interviews with interesting guests. Radio Slovensko presenters invite popular artists, prominent scientists, successful athletes, doctors and educators to the studio to discuss both entertaining and serious topics. The invitation to the Night Pyramid was accepted by Janka Medová, who spoke about her professional and private life on November 20, 2023 and also presented Math Trails.
Thanks to the interest of the public and the media, Math-Trails and MathCityMap are becoming more and more popular and their use in math lessons is gradually becoming a welcome activity in all schools in Slovakia.
We are very happy about the great events and achievements and are looking forward to what 2024 has in store for MathCityMap in Slovakia and the other partner countries.

Dear MathCityMap Community,

We are delighted to welcome a new partner school, the secondary school IES Eugenio Frutos in Guareña (Spain). The math teacher Beatriz Blanco, who also initiated the application process, has sent us lots of exciting information about her city and her experiences with MathCityMap so far, which we would now like to share with you.

The town of Guareña has around 7000 inhabitants and its main economic activity is agriculture. Recently, however, an archaeological site called Turuñuelo was found, which has made the town one of the most interesting places in the region.

Beatriz Blanco and her school regularly use MathCityMap for outdoor learning in their town and the surrounding cities. Their main trail (code: 392194) is called “Una mirada matemática sobre Guareña”, which translates as “A mathematical look at Guareña”. This trail has already been used by various class levels and has been downloaded over 171 times in total.

There is also a trail in Spanish and English in a nearby town (Villanueva de la Serena), which the pupils of IES Eugenio Frutos can discover on their annual excursion to the town. The trail code in spanish is 199746.

The school was recognized for its great mathematical achievements by the regional government and several articles were subsequently written about it.

The package with the official partner school badge and the MCM measuring instruments is already on its way to Spain and we are already looking forward to receiving further applications from all over the world.

All further information on the partner school program and the requirements for the application can be found in the article on the first MCM partner school as well as on the homepage of our MaSCE³ project.

Dear MathCityMap-Community,

As we close out 2023, we would like to take a short trip through the last few months and look back on the many great events and developments that MathCityMap has had in store for us:

• This year, the community has grown by 7,085 users and we are delighted to welcome all new members. This means that the MCM-Community now has over 25,000 users and has almost tripled in size in the last two years.
• Furthermore, almost 25,000 new tasks have been added – more than ever before. This brings us to a total of 74,226 tasks worldwide, of which around 17,000 have been published!
• We have also welcomed a new member to our team. Isabella Gogesch has been supporting us in the didactic support of the app since this year. She is also responsible for the content of the website and the social media pages (Instagram @mathcitymap.eu).
• Our new Erasmus+project MATRIX (Math Trails with an Inclusive Perspective on Students Experiences) has started and we are looking forward to the new collaboration and the goals we want to achieve together over the next few years. In the future, students will also be able to create their own tasks and the app will be made more inclusive.
• Of course, MCM was also present at international events. For example, we and our partners were able to present the system and its latest developments in Porto and Budapest. There were also numerous training courses and activities that brought MathCityMap closer to researchers, teachers and students.
• The partner school program launched as part of the MaSCE³-project has also been further expanded. There are now 39 official MathCityMap partner schools in a total of 9 countries that have successfully completed the application process and we are already looking forward to receiving many more applications from all over the world.

We are incredibly happy about the great developments of MathCityMap and the great cooperation with the partner schools and the community.
Thank you very much for your interest and enthusiasm to rediscover mathematics with us and to spread and share this knowledge. In this way, we can give many learners a different perspective on mathematics and change things step by step. None of this would be possible without our fantastic users, so thank you all very much!

We wish you and your families happy holidays, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2024. We look forward to discovering new and exciting challenges around the world with you and many new members in 2024.

Your MathCityMap-Team

We’re happy to welcome two new partner schools: the primary school Základná škola Kanianka in  Slovakia (Kanianka) and the secondary school Colegio María Reina Inmaculada in Spain (Santander).

Primary school teacher Daria Lubikova from Slovakia, who initiated the application process for the Základná škola Kanianka school, has already had many interesting experiences with MathCityMap at her school.

„The first point of interest is that I am a big fan of learning outdoors. Teaching outdoors is very illustrative and varied. In our facebook group of mathematics teachers we talked about various topics and one of them was MathCityMap. Then I studied alone, only with a manual. This manual is in Slovak language and is made very well. The second point of interest is digital literacy. For me it is natural. I am a teacher of computer science, but children need practical and functional skills. I found out – when students start the trails they are happy, they do mathematics and they are happy 🙂 They like to walk around the school and explore the tasks. They like working in groups. They like to use measuring tools. And they like to invent tasks for another group or for younger students. For now, only on paper, but we will see what options the future opens in MathCityMaps. We all like it – me and students, too. Thank you for all.“

These are some of the trails that Daria Lubikova has created for her students:

Trail-Code: 4712305

Trail-Code: 5617500

Trail-Code: 1317230

Finally, here are a few pictures of Daria Lubikova’s students measuring and discovering mathematics outdoors:

Teacher Cristina González Acero from the Colegio María Reina Inmaculada has also had great experiences with MathCityMap.

„The idea of using the Mathcitymaps application arose with the purpose of giving our students a chance to answer by themselves a never-ending question: What is the use of Maths in real life? Last academic year (2022/23) we created for our 2nd, 3rd and 4th Secondary School year students two Math-trails with different locations within the boundaries of our school. As a result, students could experience themselves that Maths aren’t just theoretical exercises to be solved in class. On the contrary, Maths are indeed really useful to mesure, calculate and solve problems of our daily life. Additionaly, this application let them enhance their teamwork, fostering peer collaboration and critical thinking; a truly exciting experience four our students! They are already thrilled to participate again in another activity!“

Among others, the students explored their surroundings using the trail (trail-code: 136223).

Of course, the package with the official partner school plaque and the MCM measuring instruments is already on its way to both schools and we are very much looking forward to receiving further applications from all over the world.

All further information about the partner school program and the requirements for the application can be found in the article about the first MCM partner school as well as on the homepage of our project MaSCE³.