45,000 and Counting: The PIMS Education Legacy
By Miguel Eichelberger
A BUSY 20 YEARS
There is no such thing as too early when it comes to training the next generation of mathematical scientists and promoting diversity within mathematics. This belief has guided the PIMS Education Program in reaching and influencing over 45,000 students and 5,400 teachers across western Canada over the course of our 20 year history (we’ll get to the specifics in a moment).
Math is everywhere; for everyone. And it is unavoidable. This is why helping students and teachers gain comfort and understanding in the subject is the best way to ensure that no opportunities are lost; that everyone is capable of opening a window into the universal opportunity that mathematics provides in nearly every sector of society. This is the bedrock of the PIMS Education Outreach Platform.
Through innovative, collaborative programming, we are reaching young women, minority groups, and indigenous peoples in communities as remote as Tahsis, and as diverse as Metro Vancouver. And that reach is growing. In 2017 alone, our Math Mania program expanded to Manitoba through the efforts of our UManitoba PIMS Education Coordinator Darja Barr (see: Math Mania Reaches First Nations Communities in Manitoba), and to the Yukon as guided by our UBC Education Coordinator Melania Alvarez.
Since mathematics is everywhere, we are making sure we are too. In our quest to increase the public’s awareness of the subject, we want young people to see that mathematics is a launching pad for the future. For careers in science, sustainability, technology, finance, and even in the humanities (yes, you read that correctly).
BY THE NUMBERS: THE PIMS EDUCATION PLATFORM
Each year, we sponsor and coordinate a vast array of educational activities for every stop along the scholastic spectrum from K-12 to Graduate level initiatives. Every cog in the PIMS Education Platform is designed for a specific purpose, and always with diversity in mind.
By the numbers, here is just some of what we do and what we’ve accomplished over the years:
THE STUDENT IMPACT: 45,000
ELMACON: Following the MATHCOUNTS model, ELMACON is a competition for students in grades 5–7 organized by PIMS under the guidance of Dr. Cary Chien, in collaboration with the BCAMT and volunteers from UBC, SFU and the Lower Mainland. It’s a chance for students to experience mathematics as an exciting sport.
IMPACT: Over 5700 students in 20 years.
Math Mania: A popular event sponsored by PIMS’ UBC and University of Victoria sites, which has run in elementary schools on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland since 1997, expanding to Manitoba and the Yukon in 2017. Math Mania presents a variety of interactive demonstrations, puzzles, games and art designed to demonstrate to children — and their parents — fun ways of learning both math and computer science concepts.
IMPACT: Reaching an average of 1200 students per year across Western Canada.
Summer Schools and Aboriginal Student Summer Camps: Organized and supported by PIMS, the SFU Faculty of Science, the SFU Office for Aboriginal Peoples, the IRMACS Centre, and the SFU Department of Mathematics. The goal is to increase student participation, retention and high school graduation rates by providing a more solid foundation in Mathematics, Science and English.
IMPACT: Over 275 high school students in ten years. Over 750 Elementary school students in nine years.
School Visits Across British Columbia: Led and organized by PIMS’ UBC Education Coordinator Dr. Melania Alvarez, school visits consist of hands-on engagement with both students and teachers, in new methods of teaching mathematics.
IMPACT: Over 750 students per year
Math Circles Workshops: Math Circles Workshops are an enrichment program organized by faculty members from UBC’s Department of Mathematics as well as PIMS, inviting students from grades 4–7 to challenge and develop their thinking, creativity and problem solving skills in a fun learning environment that brings math to life.
IMPACT: Over 30 students per year
THE TEACHER IMPACT: 5,400
Math Summer School for Elementary School Teachers: A PIMS initiative that began in 2015. PIMS pays teachers to attend a month-long program designed to help them gain comfort and fluency in the teaching of mathematics.
IMPACT: 60 teachers in the first three years of the Summer school
One/Two Day Professional Development Workshops for Teachers: Development workshops to help teachers find new, creative, immersive ways to teach mathematics while gaining a better understanding of the subject for themselves.
IMPACT: Average of 20 professional development workshops per year over the last 12 years reaching more than 400 Teachers per year.
THE IMPACT WE CAN’T MEASURE: PARENTS, RESEARCHERS, COMMUNITIES, INDUSTRY
Each one of those more than 5,400 teachers amplifies our reach through the students that occupy their classrooms for the rest of their careers. That influence extends to parents, communities, and, for those who are inspired to explore mathematics in their future, to the areas of research that arise from their interest. We cannot measure this impact in the short term but, we can see it in the slow shift toward a more diverse mathematics population on university campuses.
This also extends to our industry partnerships in the development of innovative educational tools on digital platforms.
Math on the Move: This program ran from 2005 to 2013. It was an activity-based camp designed for students from grades 7- 12 that traveled to remote communities across Saskatchewan.
Changing the Culture: The annual Changing the Culture Conference, organized and sponsored by the PIMS, brings together mathematicians, mathematics educators and school teachers from all levels to work together towards narrowing the gap between researchers and educators; the gap between those who practice and enjoy mathematics and those who think they don’t.
Pi in the Sky: Pi in the Sky is our annual math magazine for high school students designed to promote mathematics, increase the involvement of high school students in mathematical activities, and promote careers in mathematical sciences. (New issue out soon!)
Partnerships: In collaboration with Cybera (a not-for-profit, technical agency that is working to improve education and research at all levels across Alberta) and Compute Canada (an organization dedicated to making Canada a world leader in the use of advanced computing for research, discovery and innovation) we deployed syzygy.ca (see: Canadians Land on Jupyter) which delivers Jupyter to researchers, educators and innovators across Canada.
MATH EDUCATION MATTERS
It becomes obvious to say that PIMS takes the quality, course and power of mathematics education seriously. Indeed, we work to touch the lives of students, parents, teachers, and the mathematics community so that we can change the way math is viewed; especially as it is called upon more and more to find solutions to global problems.
Math education matters. And how we view it will define the parts we play in its future. Math is not a static, numbers on numbers discipline, but a vast and beautiful form of reasoning; it is not an intractable nuisance but a tool of nearly infinite use; it is not a desert of symbols but a canvas for boundless creativity.
This is what we espouse to students and teachers alike. What we show the public at large and what we celebrate with every event, every piece of construction paper, every game we play, every lecture and every student whose mind comes to life in the programs we set before them.
Indeed, we have directly helped more than 45,000 students and 5,400 teachers see math differently. And we have no intention of stopping there.
For more information on PIMS Education Initiatives, please explore our education webpage and contact any of our extraordinary Education Coordinators who have made all of this possible.
Dr. Melania Alvarez will be speaking at the University of Manitoba on Thursday, October 26th for a PIMS-Manitoba Distinguished Speaker Seminar covering many of the education outreach initiatives mentioned in this article, as well as conducting workshops with attending teachers.
PIMS gratefully acknowledges the efforts and contributions of our private and corporate donors who have played an integral part in making our Education Outreach Initiatives possible:
Actuarial Foundation of Canada
ARC Resources Ltd.
Brian Russell, Vice-President, Software Hampson-Russell, Calgary
Calfrac Well Services Ltd.
Haig Farris, President, Fractal Capital Corporation
Kinder Morgan
Neysa Finnie, President, St. Thomas More Collegiate
SpencerCreo Foundation
Vaho Rebasso, (former) Chief Technology Officer, Boeing Information Technology, The Boeing Company
Vancity
Vanguard Charitable Endowment
Willow Grove Foundation
Thank you from all of us at PIMS.
