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It’s been an interesting few months for the Cambridge Maths team. Whilst Brexit continues to make relationships uncertain in the UK, we’re working with partners here and abroad to see how our Framework may be of use to them once it is complete.
A stimulating CIDREE conference in Utrecht brought international curriculum designers together to discuss the relationship between mathematics and computational thinking – and we captured some of that in Espresso 19. Colleagues from other universities worked with us on Espressos too, and here within the Cambridge community we have been exploring how the Framework can support curriculum design for different purposes, how our Espressos and Research Summaries can support professional development, and what is the best way to link tasks and assessments. We are always so grateful for the support busy people are happy to give us.
Our focus now is on getting the Framework's content complete to what is commonly the end of compulsory education – around 16 – and we are beginning to think about a user interface. All exciting stuff.
The team continues to travel to learn and in September we will be in Pittsburgh for the annual ISDDE conference, where we benefit hugely from working with well-established and knowledgeable designers. Meanwhile I am off for a couple of weeks to support the work of the Mauritius Institute of Education – of which more in the next newsletter.
Best wishes,
Lynne
Team Update
Farewell Tabs...
This month we have said a temporary farewell to Tabitha Gould who is now on maternity leave until November. Tabs and her husband are expecting their second daughter at the end of May and we wish them all the very best as they welcome her to their family.
... and welcome Nicky!
As Tabitha's replacement, we are delighted to welcome Nicky Rushton to the team. Nicky is joining us on secondment from her permanent role as a Research Officer with the ARD team at Cambridge Assessment and we are looking forward to working with her.
Updates to the Website
Reduced load times
Over the past few months Ray has been hard at work improving our website, from making minor visual changes to refining back-end implementations. This back-end work has improved average load times by 2 seconds, and has reduced average total page load time by half, so you should have a faster, more enjoyable experience when using the site.
New and improved sections
The Research section of the site has been restructured to improve clarity and we have a new Media section, which allows users to see how the team is getting involved with the wider mathematics education community.
Better analytics
Ray has also prioritised the enhancement of our visibility across SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) by overhauling our meta details and by introducing JSON schemas across the site. He then redesigned our analytics to provide a range of valid goals and events; as a result we are now more informed about how our site is used, what our users enjoy and where the site needs further improvement. As always, however, we welcome your direct feedback, so if you see something on our website which you think we could improve, do let us know.
Recent Events
ISDDE UK 2019
In March we had the privilege of hosting the first annual meeting of the UK branch of the International Society for Design and Development in Education. Forty delegates from around the UK and Ireland came to the Triangle building for two days of discussion, presentations and sharing of practical ideas on design in mathematics education. Read Lucy's blog Collaboration or co-elaboration? for an overview.
MA/ATM Annual Conference
Lucy, Tabitha and Darren presented the joint session Making Mathematical Sculptures at April's MA/ATM annual conference in Warwick. Assuming the delegates had as much fun as the whole team did while they were practicing for it, this will have been one of the most popular sessions of the event!
Other news...
TES Podcasts
Lucy was invited by TES to record a pilot podcast in October last year on the theme of maths education. This proved so successful that since January they have been broadcasting one Mathematips podcast per month; in each of them Lucy interviews a different expert in maths education research. There are links to each of them on our website.
Working with ARM
Working in collaboration with the renowned locally-based educational software developer ARM, we undertook a project earlier this year to assess the feasibility of applying the Framework's structure and methodology to computational thinking in schools. The report will be published in July, but meanwhile the consultant who undertook the project, PhD student Rina Pak Ying Lai, wrote an Espresso for us on the subject of promoting Computational Thinking in the Classroom.
Coming soon to a mobile near you...
... the first Cambridge Maths mobile app! The pilot is currently underway so watch this space for the launch in the near future.
About Cambridge Mathematics
Cambridge Mathematics is committed to championing and securing a world class mathematics education for all students from 3 – 19 years old, applicable to both national and international contexts and based on evidence from research and practice.
