teacher training | MathCityMap

MathCityMap at the Landesfachtag 2023

Yesterday, MathCityMap was not to be missed at the State of Hesse’s Landesfachtag 2023 on the topics of media education and digitalization. Framed in a great program of lectures and presentations, which was organized by the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Hessian Ministry of Education, our Frankfurt MathCityMap team was on site and could, for […]

Yesterday, MathCityMap was not to be missed at the State of Hesse’s Landesfachtag 2023 on the topics of media education and digitalization. Framed in a great program of lectures and presentations, which was organized by the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Hessian Ministry of Education, our Frankfurt MathCityMap team was on site and could, for example, inform and inspire many of the teachers about the possibilities of MathCityMap as a learning environment with a small pop-up station.

In addition, there was a comprehensive workshop on MathCityMap, in which a total of 13 teachers from primary and secondary schools participated. After a theory-based introduction by our team, the teachers went out to the university campus, where they took on the role of students and tried out a trail with the MathCityMap app.

We were very pleased about the great interest at the Landesfachtag and are already excited to see which new trail ideas will be implemented at schools in Hesse!

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 […]

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.

The MathCityMap Summer in Slovakia

In the summer of 2022, several events, such as conferences and so-called summer schools for young scientists, took place all over Europe on the topics of development of mathematics education and research in the field of mathematics education. Several of them were attended by the staff of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of […]

In the summer of 2022, several events, such as conferences and so-called summer schools for young scientists, took place all over Europe on the topics of development of mathematics education and research in the field of mathematics education. Several of them were attended by the staff of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra, as well as by teachers and students of various disciplines of the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra. The aim of the visit was, among other things, to make MathCityMap better known in Europe and to present the latest findings on the use of MathCityMap in the classroom.

In the following report, Janka Medová, Veronika Bočková, Soňa Čeretková and Silvia Haringová present the activities of the Slovak MathCityMap Summer:

The first of the summer schools, Socio-scientific Issues in Mathematics and Science Initial Teachers Education: Join a unique intercultural experience preparing you for the future classroom! was held on 15-24 June 2022 at the Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Soňa Čeretková prepared and facilitated a workshop including MathCityMap trails named Preparation of teaching with the use of innovative teaching methods and outdoor teaching with the support of digital technologies. The summer school was organised within the Erasmus+ ENSITE project (https://icse.eu/ensite/), as was the summer school Dealing with environmental issues in science education – Deepening future science and maths teachers’ learning by teaching. A two-day workshop on MCM trails as a tool for developing awareness of environmental issues was prepared in Varna by Janka Medová and Veronika Bočková. The summer school took place in Varna, Bulgaria, 31 July-11 August 2022 and was organised by the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

At the summer school for graduate students and early career researchers Intensive training school in qualitative research design and research methods in mathematics education supported by European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (ERME), held in Nitra on 29 June – 1 July Silvia Haringová referred about her work with teacher in co-designing and teaching the MCM trails.

During the two-day Summer School of Didactics of Mathematics, which took place on 6-7 July 2022 at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia, primary and secondary school teachers solved a mathematical trail using the MathCityMap application in the city centre. The seminar led by Silvia Haringova continued after solving all the tasks in the premises of the university. During the seminar, participants learned how to create a trail on the portal and received manuals for creating math trails in MathCityMap.

A workshop on MCM trails was conducted by Janka Medová and Veronika Bočková in the centre of Utrecht, the Netherlands, as part of Utrecht Summer School: Mathematics Education held on 15-25 August 2022. The implementation of the summer school was also supported by the ICSE Academy project, in which researchers from several departments of Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra collaborate with the Freudenthal Institute of the University of Utrecht to design and implement professional development programmes for teachers of mathematics, science and engineering (STEM) with a European dimension.

Janka Medová went also to Usti nad Labem in the Czech Republic, where she attended an event called the Summer School of Didactics of Science STEM Subjects, consisting of several accredited programmes for teachers of mathematics and science. As a lecturer, she collaborated in the implementation of the programme Didactic Principles in STEM subjects with colleagues from the J.E. Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem and Charles University in Prague. The proposed professional development programme included MCM trails and is based on a joint book of 16 authors, didacticians of various subjects, entitled Didactic principles in science education: methodological guide for teachers of biology, chemistry, physics, geography, informatics, mathematics and lecturers of environmental education. The book was officially invited on Thursday, 18 August 2022, with the participation of the Dean of the Faculty of Science of UJEP and the Faculty of Education of Charles University.

From 22 to 26 August 2022, the prestigious summer school for doctoral students and young researchers called YESS (YERME Summer School) organized with the support of ERME at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, was attended by a doctoral student of the Department of Mathematics, a student of the study programme Theory of Mathematics Education, Mgr. Silvia Haringová. In TWG 1: Mathematics teacher expertise, practice, and professional development, led by Alf Coles from the University of Bristol (UK), she presented partial results and proposed methodology of her PhD thesis on Collaboration as a means of professional growth of mathematics teachers where she collaborates with mathematics teachers in development of MCM trails.

In the last days before the start of the lecture period, 7-9 September 2022, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia hosted the thirteenth ERME Topic Conference 13 (ETC13) entitled MEDA 3 Mathematics Education in the Digital Age. The MEDA3 conference follows the MEDA conferences organized at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018 and Linz School of Education, Johannes Kepler University, Austria in 2020. During the conference Silvia Haringova presented a contribution Identification of domains of mathematics teachers’ knowledge addressed in reflection on technology-supported mathematical trails, co-authored with Janka Medova. The presented model of PD for mathematics teachers and the MCM trails evoked rich discussion.

A week later, on 13-16 September 2022, Janka Medova presented another contribution of the team Haringova-Medova, titled Factors affecting collaboration in designing and enacting MathCityMap trails by in-service teachers at the conference TiMER Trends in Mathematics Education Research held in Krakow, Poland. Event was supported by European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (ERME) within the call Initiatives for Supporting Emerging Communities for Mathematics Education Research in Eastern Europe.

And, since the school year in Slovakia has already started, we are again visiting the schools where we develop and enact the new MCM trails in collaboration with mathematics teachers.

Mathtrails with MCM – A Seminar at the University of Paderborn

In the summer semester of 2022, Dr. Susanne Podoworny offered a seminar on MathCityMap for master students of elementary school teaching at the University of Paderborn. We would like to present a report about the implementation of this great seminar idea in this article. The goal of the seminar was to create and implement a […]

In the summer semester of 2022, Dr. Susanne Podoworny offered a seminar on MathCityMap for master students of elementary school teaching at the University of Paderborn. We would like to present a report about the implementation of this great seminar idea in this article.

The goal of the seminar was to create and implement a mathematical trail using the MCM app with elementary school children on a suitable theoretical basis.

In the area around Paderborn, two elementary schools could be won over, which agreed to carry out a mathematical trail with five first and two second classes later on.

After a few sessions in which the students explored theoretical backgrounds on learning in out-of-school places, learning with digital media, and of course MathCityMap, four student groups formed to create four mathematical walking paths with MCM. The students found it particularly challenging to create appropriate tasks for the still very young target group. One student wrote in this regard “It’s very difficult to formulate tasks for first grade when the kids can barely read.”

The implementation then took place in a double lesson at each of the two elementary schools. The trails were designed along the schoolyards and often referred to the playground equipment. Overall, the student teachers reported that the students involved, as well as the teachers, greatly appreciated this different mathematics lesson. A questionnaire was distributed to the students by the students and 145 children completed it. Some results can be seen in the following diagram.

As a hint from the implementation, the recommendation to integrate a read-aloud function into the MathCityMap app arose, which we gladly take up for the further development of our system.

The seminar was well attended with 24 students. On the one hand, the students appreciated the freedom offered by the seminar design and, on the other hand, the real-life work with elementary school children, which gave everyone a lot of pleasure. Due to the positive response from the students, this seminar will be offered again in the winter semester.

The MathCityMap Team at the GDM Annual Conference

As in previous years, it was a special pleasure for our team in Frankfurt to present the ideas and potential of MathCityMap at the recent annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik (Society for Didactics of Mathematics). As the largest conference for didactics of mathematics in the German-speaking countries, the GDM annual conference […]

As in previous years, it was a special pleasure for our team in Frankfurt to present the ideas and potential of MathCityMap at the recent annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik (Society for Didactics of Mathematics).

As the largest conference for didactics of mathematics in the German-speaking countries, the GDM annual conference not only offers us the opportunity to discuss current research on MathCityMap and the idea of app-supported mathematical walking paths with the scientific community and to generate new ideas for the further development of the MathCityMap system. In addition, we were able to promote the enthusiasm and understanding for the concept of making mathematics experienceable and learnable outdoors with a workshop for teachers on MathCityMap and an information desk on the conference grounds.

We were again able to gain some new impulses for our work and are already looking forward to the appearance of the many contributions on MathCityMap in the conference proceedings of the GDM, which we will of course also link for you on this website.

MCM Training in Ober-Ramstadt, Germany

At the beginning of April, a MathCityMap advanced training course was held in Ober-Ramstadt as part of a project day for the more than 30 students of the advanced mathematics courses at the Georg-Christoph Lichtenbergschool. The students first learned how to use MCM and then developed creative MCM tasks on the school campus for the […]

At the beginning of April, a MathCityMap advanced training course was held in Ober-Ramstadt as part of a project day for the more than 30 students of the advanced mathematics courses at the Georg-Christoph Lichtenbergschool.

The students first learned how to use MCM and then developed creative MCM tasks on the school campus for the lower and middle school. In total, the math teachers can now draw on about 50 new tasks and develop trails for their classes.

An overview of the different tasks created by the students* can be found in the trails sorted by grade level with codes 489376 for 5th/6th grade, 569374 for 7th/8th grade, and 199375 for 9th/10th grade.

The students were happy that they could create math tasks for current and future students in the spirit of sustainability. This project day showed that students can also create meaningful MCM tasks for the school community.

The project day was led by our team members Melanie Schubert and Rebecca Stäter and was carried out at the direct request of the Georg-Christoph Lichtenbergschool Ober-Ramstadt, whose teachers had already attended a MathCityMap training course in advance. If you would like to learn more about MathCityMap in the context of a teacher or student training, perhaps even directly at your school, please contact us at any time at info@mathcitymap.eu .

MathCityMap: News from Indonesia

In 2014 MathCityMap was introduced to Indonesia with a pilot study conducted by Goethe University Frankfurt in collaboration with Universitas Negeri Semarang involving several schools in the city of Semarang. Just three years afterwards in 2017, the Mobile Math Trails Research Group was established to become a center for the study of math trails […]

In 2014 MathCityMap was introduced to Indonesia with a pilot study conducted by Goethe University Frankfurt in collaboration with Universitas Negeri Semarang involving several schools in the city of Semarang. Just three years afterwards in 2017, the Mobile Math Trails Research Group was established to become a center for the study of math trails with digital technology in Indonesia. Since then MOOCs are offered and teacher trainings are organized in collaboration with teacher organizations and the Education Offices in several cities. At some universities, MathCityMap is part of the courses taught to prospective mathematics teachers and is a topic investigated in several theses.

At the end of 2021, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology invited the Mobile Math Trail Research Group to collaborate in organizing a teacher training on strengthening literacy and numeracy skills using MathCityMap. The speaker in the training was Professor Matthias Ludwig as the founder of MathCityMap who explained the MathCityMap concept, and the technical details of the webportal and the app in collaboration with Dr Adi Nur Cahyono, the coordinator of MathCityMap in Indonesia, and his team.

Participants in this training were 240 teachers from 34 provinces in Indonesia. Primary and secondary school teachers who were selected from 6500 applicants to the teacher training. The training was conducted in four stages and each stage was carried out in 4 days in Jakarta and Bandung. The training was realized with offline sessions which consisted of an indoor theory lesson and an outdoor practice in the famous city parks in the two cities, namely the Bogor Botanical Gardens, Jakarta Old Town, Banteng Field, Kencana Park.

As a follow-up, the trainees returned to their respective areas and held multiplier trainings for their colleagues. They also created a mathtrail in their area with the local cultural context and implement it with students and the public. Communication with the teachers is maintained to discuss and share implementation experiences through the MathCityMap Indonesia Community forum.

MathCityMap trails and users in Indonesia have increased significantly and continue to grow as a positive impact of dissemination through MOOCs, lectures at teacher education institutes, teacher trainings and communities. In 2022, the Directorate General of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia will provide training on numeracy and literacy skills using MathCityMap for 22,000 university students who will undertake internships in schools throughout Indonesia.

MathCityMap: News from Slovakia

Collaboration as a means of professional growth for mathematics teachers Recently in Slovakia Mathtrails with MathCityMap were used in a professional development event for mathematics teachers, especially as an impulse for collaboration in joint development of mathematics education within the national KEGA project “Collaboration as a means for professional development of mathematics teachers”. […]

Collaboration as a means of professional growth for mathematics teachers

Recently in Slovakia Mathtrails with MathCityMap were used in a professional development event for mathematics teachers, especially as an impulse for collaboration in joint development of mathematics education within the national KEGA project “Collaboration as a means for professional development of mathematics teachers”. Janka Medová and Silvia Haringová from the Department of Mathematics at the University “Constantine the Philosopher” in Nitra and teachers from the United Catholic School in Nitra participated in the design of the mathematical trails.

During the first meeting, the teachers put themselves in the role of students. With the help of mobile devices, they tried to master the prepared mathtrail. After they had solved all the tasks, we explained to them how the MathCityMap portal works and how a mathtrail can be created. Furthermore, the teachers received a manual with detailed instructions on how to create a trail. The teachers’ task was now to come up with their own tasks and to upload them to the portal by the next meeting.

At our next meeting, the teachers discussed the tasks together and selected the best ones to create the final Mathtrail. This trail was tested out by high school students who spent two class periods walking the trail and solving tasks. Following the walk-through of the mathtrail, a joint teacher reflection took place, focusing on the importance of incorporating mathtrails into the teaching of mathematics.

MCM goes Canada

From September 9 to October 8, we were able to collaborate with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada on a new project on outdoor mathematics and MathCityMap. Visiting the research group of Prof. Dr. Nathalie Sinclair, we dedicated ourselves to research on embodiment and gestures while walking a mathtrail: When students work on real objects, […]

From September 9 to October 8, we were able to collaborate with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada on a new project on outdoor mathematics and MathCityMap. Visiting the research group of Prof. Dr. Nathalie Sinclair, we dedicated ourselves to research on embodiment and gestures while walking a mathtrail: When students work on real objects, it seems natural that they interact with the object and describe mathematical concepts through gestures.

We started by looking at the SFU campus, and we didn’t have to search long for suitable tasks! Not only the pyramid seemed to be made for MCM! In the course of an advanced training with 20 teachers, the tasks could then be tested directly. Afterwards, five groups were filmed solving the tasks. In the evaluation, we will focus on when and with which function different gestures were used. We will submit these results at the next PME conference (2022 in Valencia).

Of course, we did not miss the opportunity to create some trails in downtown Vancouver – both the Waterfront Station and the Stanley Park were ideal addresses for our first “Canadian Math Trails”.

The study and the accompanying research stay are funded by the DAAD and the BMBF within the framework of the Project-related Exchange of Persons (PPP) Canada.

MaSCE³ – Teacher training Spain

The MathCityMap Team Spain is offering training for teachers on mathematical walking paths with MathCityMap. The training will start on the second of October with a face-to-face session in four different cities – Gijón, Guareña (Extremadura), Jaén and Santander. The rest of this training will be held online. The necessary information to register can be […]

The MathCityMap Team Spain is offering training for teachers on mathematical walking paths with MathCityMap. The training will start on the second of October with a face-to-face session in four different cities – Gijón, Guareña (Extremadura), Jaén and Santander. The rest of this training will be held online. The necessary information to register can be found on the poster in this post. The MCM Team Spain looks forward to your participation.