National Youth Science Forum students visit the School

Students from the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) visited UNSW today, and attended sessions hosted by Schools within the Faculty of Science.

The School of Mathematics and Statistics held a forum called "The Future of Mathematics: Have Your Say!", which was attended by 40 of the students. The session was facilitated by Dr Chris Tisdell, and featured a panel of six members of staff and students from the School: Joanna Wang (Lecturer, Statistics), James Nichols (PhD student), Isaac Donnelly (PhD student), Barton Lee (undergrad student and MathSoc President), Varun Nayyar (undergrad student and MathSoc Vice President) and Georgia Tsambos (honours student).

The year 12 students came from across the country, and for the majority it was their first visit to UNSW. The group was opinionated and energetic, and eagerly debated several topics over the hour.

Dr Tisdell introduced several topics for discussion, starting with "why is maths awesome?" (very topical, considering this week is "Maths is Awesome Week"). Panel members offered up their thoughts, with Varun pointing out that "maths is applicable to everything". Georgia said that she loves how mathematics "really develops your analytical skills". James went even bigger, claiming that it's "saving the world purely with your mind".

The panel also discussed differences between applied and pure mathematics, and between high school maths and university maths, prompting discussion and questions from the NYSF group.

One of the most lively and provocative topics canvassed was the issue of girls and mathematics. Dr Tisdell asked the NYSF group why they thought there was a disparity between female and male participation in maths. Responses crossed the spectrum of nature versus nurture.

Another issue which drew interesting feedback was "how should we learn maths?". Students opened up about their experiences of learning mathematics in the classroom. Several complained that approaches to learning were too rigid; they often involved repetition without a deeper analysis of mathematical concepts. Some said that their courses focused too heavily on number crunching and passing exams, at the expense of discovery and investigation.

The last theme discussed was future trends in mathematics. Head of School Profesor Bruce Henry highlighted biomathematics and data analysis as two growing trends.

The session was very stimulating and engaging, and gave the School a glimpse into the thoughts and opinions of high school students about the current issues surrounding mathematics.

See the School Facebook page for an album of photos from the forum.