The newsletter has been created by BGU maths students for current secondary school or A-Level students to help share their own experiences of mathematics and how it is a relevant and creative subject and can be found online at: https://www.bgu.ac.uk/mathematics-2020/mathematics-newsletter
The newsletter gives real-world examples of maths in practice such as including an article about Maths and Covid and is hoped to make people aware that a career in mathematics provides many opportunities, for example in teaching, but also in the sciences, business, finance, manufacturing, communications, engineering and more.
An interactive competition has also been included where one winner can even win a graphic tablet after virtually travelling the world to answer mathematics questions.
Creating the newsletter has also given current students the opportunity to develop many key and highly transferrable skills including leadership, decision making, interpersonal skills and teamwork, which added to the academic and maths skills, makes them highly employable.
The department want to change some perceptions of maths and help young people to view maths as an enjoyable and highly relevant subject and that at BGU all the support is put in place to make the subject accessible and engaging.
Dr. Wahiba Toubal, Programme Leader for Mathematics, said: “Mathematics is the universal language, it is the one language in the world that is universally understood across different cultures, countries, and languages.
“Studying mathematics allows us to understand the world better. It helps us find patterns and structure in our lives: put a price on things, create graphics, build websites, build skyscrapers and generally understand how things work or predict how they might change over time and under different conditions. There is also a lot of beauty in the abstractness, purity, depth and orderliness of pure mathematics.
“The skills acquired while studying maths are highly desired by employers: analytical skills, problem-solving skills, data analysis, critical thinking. Knowledge of mathematics and its complexities, can help in almost every career.
“The mathematics competition is very creative and takes participants on a trip around the world. We hope it will inspire readers to explore the subject and perhaps spark an interest to study mathematics. We certainly believe maths can be for everyone, people have more maths skills than they think!”
Harry Mill, said: “Working on the Maths newsletter project has helped me to explore new aspects of a subject that I enjoy, whilst also helping to enhance my organisational skills. It has been a great experience for me.”
Rhiannon Emery, said: “When our mathematics lecturer presented the idea to us, I think we were both quite intrigued, especially since it would be the first student-led maths newsletter on campus. It helps both the readers and us, while researching, to learn more about the subject, not just in the way of learning topics from a curriculum, but also in finding out about interesting people who have had major contributions to the field, and to our daily life as well. We decided to include a competition to differentiate the newsletter from others and to provide students with a chance to practice maths in a fun, interactive way.
“I think it would have been nice to have something like this when applying for university because it introduces you to new information and ways of looking at the subject. It also shows that the students here are really involved and have the support to follow and act on interests.”