Ahead of taking part in Iām a Mathematician, book a Chat and see the Teacher Guidance notes for preparation information.
We have designed a lesson plan, based on the Science Capital Teaching Approach. The lesson plan fits a 60-minute session. If you’d like to deepen your students’ experience there is also a 3-lesson set of plans.
Briefly explain the Iām a Mathematician activity. You may find the introducing the activity to students section helpful, as well as displaying the website.
Students have the power to decide who wins Ā£500. What ideas do they have about STEM at the moment? Will they change?
Printed copies of the mathematiciansā profiles who have signed up to your live chat (see these on your dashboard)
Paper and pens for drawing a mathematician.
Starter: 10 minutes
Split students into groups ā one group for each mathematician whose profile has been printed.
Ask them to think about what they imagine mathematicians are like. Draw a mathematician as a group. Starting at the top of the piece of paper, each person draws a different part of the mathematician (head, shoulders, etc) without others seeing. They fold over what they have done and pass it on (like a game of consequences).
Unfold and look at the pictures ā are there any common themes? Do they think mathematicians are really like that?
Activity: 30 minutes
Assign each group a mathematician and hand them a print out of the mathematicianās profile. Get each group to read out their mathematician’s name and job role.
Remind the students of the five most important criteria they chose in Lesson 1: Youāre the Judges!
Get the students to read through their mathematicianās profile as a group.
Split each group in half, into Aās and Bās, for STEM speed-dating. Those in Group A are students who will go around and question Group B, who are the mathematicians. Group B will use the printed mathematician profile pages on which to base their answers.
Hand the Group A students the list of Suggested Questions to ask the Group B mathematicians. They can also ask questions of their own. If the answer is not available on the mathematician profile the group can speculate.
The Group B mathematicians will stay seated and the Group A students will rotate between each mathematician, asking questions. Move students on to a new mathematician every few minutes.
Plenary: 10 minutes
Go over the questions for each mathematician and discuss the mathematicians as a class. Did students feel they got to know the mathematicians? What are their opinions of each person? What would they like to ask the mathematicians? Now may be a good opportunity to draft some questions for Ask and Chat.
Read some of the other questions and answers on the site. Who do you think should win? Cast your vote (you can change it later if you change your mind).
Support:
Do the activity as a class with the āmathematiciansā at the front. Two or three students play each mathematician.
Extend:
Students ask their own questions rather than Suggested Questions to the āmathematiciansā. Go onto the site and submit some questions in Ask for the real mathematicians.
Lesson 2 ā Meet the mathematicians (alternative version)
If students have access to computers, this version of Lesson 2 allows for more independent learning.
Lesson objectives:
Get to know mathematicians and realise they are normal people!
Explore the site and interact with real mathematicians using Ask.
Broaden the studentsā perceptions of mathematicians and support studentsā science capital.
Curriculum links:
Select, organise and present STEM information.
Evaluate STEM information and make informed judgements from it.
Resources:
ICT suite or a computer and projector in the classroom, so students can work together with the teacher leading.
Starter: 10 minutes
Recap the Iām a Mathematician activity ā reading profiles, posting questions in Ask, live chat and Voting.
Or use āfold gameā starter from the STEM speed-dating version of Lesson 2.
Activity: 35 minutes
In pairs, mindmap suitable questions students want to ask the mathematicians. Discuss them as a class.
Send students to mathematicians.uk to log in (independently or in pairs). Read the profiles of the mathematicians who have signed up for your live chat. Find them on your dashboard.
Write down three interesting things from the profiles.
Post a question in Ask.
Read some of the other questions and answers on the site. Who do students think should win? Cast votes (students can change their vote later if they change their mind).
Plenary: 5 minutes
Students present to the class:
Three interesting things they found out on the profiles
Which imamathematician.uk they want to win and why
Who they would not vote for and why
Are the mathematicians as the students expected? If not, how are they different?
Suggested Homework:
Pick one of the mathematicians. Find out about their area of STEM and write about it, including:
What they study
Where they do their research
A famous mathematician from the area they study
Extension:
Continue reading the questions and answers already on the site. Comment or post more questions in Ask. If students change their mind about who they want to win, change their Vote.
Support:
Give more assistance in thinking up questions. Use the criteria from Lesson 1 and Suggested Questions from Lesson 2 as a basis.
Extend:
Allow more freedom when looking at the site. Write a short paragraph about what they find on the site to present back to the class. Justify more clearly which mathematician they like best.
Suggested Questions
1. What kind of place do you work? 2. What do you do? 3. Whatās your favourite band? 4. Do you work alone or as part of a team? 5. How long have you done your job? 6. What is your research trying to find out? 7. Will your research affect people? If so how many people and in what way? These Suggested Questions are also available to download and print [PDF]
Click Chat at the top of the page to join the session.
While waiting for the Chat to start, as a class go over the important criteria from Lesson 1, Suggested Questions from Lesson 2 and questions students have prepared. If students were hoping to chat with a specific mathematician who canāt make the Chat, encourage them to post their question(s) in Ask instead.
Activity: 40 minutes
Chat with the mathematicians, as individuals, pairs or small groups. See the teacher guidance for how the Chat system works.
In the Chat students can get to know the mathematicians better, in real time. Remind them that they have a big responsibility because they can vote for which mathematician wins Ā£500.
Plenary: 5 minutes
Students Vote for who they think should win.
Are there any other questions they didnāt get to ask? Post these in Ask.
Remind students that they can use the site to Ask questions at home if they have access to the internet.
Participate your students in the 5 minute reflection activity to facilitate discussion around their experience. Through this assessment tool, students delve deeper into the learning outcomes they have met.
This can take part as a plenary after the live Chat or at the start of a following lesson.
Suggested Homework:
Pick one of the mathematiciansā areas of work. Find out more about an issue facing that area. Either research an issue that came up in the live chat, or write about the biggest issue facing that area of work. Post a question about this issue in Ask.
Support:
Suggest questions or ask mathematicians the mindmapped questions from Lesson 2.
Extend:
Read mathematiciansā profiles to ask questions about their specific areas of study. What can students learn about the different projects mathematicians are working on?
