MathCityMap in winter? Of course!
Our MathCityMap team in Slovakia, led by Janka Medová and Silvia Haringová from the University of Nitra, once again impressively proved that outdoor mathematics not only works in winter, but can also be used just as well as in the rest of the year.
Silvia travelled to Krakow for a one-week scholarship at the local Pedagogical University, where she developed tasks and trails on the topic of functions together with PhD students from Košice.
Janka and Silvia attended the conference Dva dny s didaktikou matematiky (Two Days of Mathematics Education) in Prague together shortly afterwards, where they gave a presentation on Mathtrails in teacher education. In particular, they spoke there about their collaboration with primary and secondary teachers in designing and implementing the teaching trails.
Lysá nad Labem was Janka and Silvia’s next stop. A group of local maths and reading enthusiasts, in cooperation with Antonín Jančařík from the Department of Mathematics and Didactics of Mathematics at the Faculty of Education of Charles University, was preparing an outdoor maths experience for visitors to three Czech towns: Benátky nad Jizerou, Milovice and Lysá nad Labem. Each of these towns had its own tasks and a Mathtrail, where visitors had to solve mathematical and literary tasks in addition to exploring the beauty and history of the towns. Janka and Silvia helped to create some sample tasks here and familiarised group members with the MathCityMap application.
Also in Athens, the capital of Greece, Janka and Silvia were able to present their research on classroom research online with the support of MathCityMap at the National and Kapodastrian University.
In the course Development of Specific Mathematical Thinking for students of the Pre-school and Primary Education programme at the University of Nitra, Mathtrails were thematised and tried out as a central part of the content. The students then developed their own tasks with a focus on combinatorics and probability, which they uploaded to the MathCityMap system.
PhD student Katka Laššová created a mathtrail focusing on the spatial skills of vocational students with a technical focus. The trail was carried out with students from the technical secondary school for mechanical engineering in Bánovce nad Bebravou. She also visited the primary school Duklianska 1 in Bánovce nad Bebravou. The school management had the idea to organise a mathtrail with future first graders during the open day. Katka helped the teachers develop the trail and the tasks.
Under the leadership of Janka Medova, Veronika Bočková and Kitti Páleníková, a workshop on mathtrails was held for pre-service teachers. They solved tasks in the atrium of the Nitra University campus and were then introduced to the creation of mathtrails and finally designed a task themselves on the campus in the MathCityMap system. Many of the teachers went on to develop mathtrails at their schools and use them in the classroom.
