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Come to Cambridge on Saturday 21st March 2015 to join in the huge range of free family activities at the Cambridge Science Festival Maths Public Open Day! From Isaac Newton onwards, Cambridge has been associated with some of the most famous mathematicians in history. Modern mathematicians and theoretical physicists work on everything from the Big Bang to number theory, from modelling the shrinking of Arctic sea ice to geometry, quantum information and understanding how the influenza virus evolves.
The annual University of Cambridge Science Festival takes place from 9-22 March 2015, packed with hundreds of free events for all ages. You can browse the full programme on the Cambridge Science Festival web pages, but we've also picked out some of the Festival's mathematical highlights for you below. From maths and art to the mystery of dark matter, Fermat's Last Theorem to the Enigma code, the free public talks on offer cover a huge range of mathematical topics.
The STIMULUS programme has created 362 placements for Cambridge student volunteers in local schools this year - a new annual record! STIMULUS is a community service programme which gives Cambridge University students the opportunity to work with pupils in local primary and secondary schools and sixth form colleges, helping with Maths, Science and Computing lessons. Volunteers sign up for a term at a time, working in their assigned school for one afternoon each week. This year, STIMULUS has also expanded to include a collaboration with the national Code Clubs network.
The University of Cambridge's Mathematics Faculty has launched a new, pilot project providing free online support and preparation resources for students now in Year 12 who may want to take STEP (or the Oxford MAT) in Year 13. STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper) is an additional examination which usually forms part of conditional offers to mathematics applicants at Cambridge and some other universities.
Thank you to all the school students, Cambridge students and staff and members of the public who helped to build part of the world's largest ever distributed model fractal out of business cards! The model represents a Menger sponge: a (nearly) three-dimensional fractal cube, which has so many holes it contains no volume at all, but is so crinkly it has infinite surface area. The Level 3 model cube, which is proudly on view in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, is built out of 8,000 smaller cubes, each made from 6 folded business cards.
Join us at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences on Saturday 25 October for a day packed with hands-on mathematical activities, including the chance to take part in the global MegaMenger event - an attempt to build the world's largest ever distributed model fractal out of business cards! A Menger sponge is a (nearly) three-dimensional fractal cube, which has so many holes it contains no volume at all, but is so crinkly it has infinite surface area..
You can now watch videos of the two plenary talks from our Year 12 Mathematics Enrichment Day online. 120 Year 12 students (aged 16-17) from 13 different schools took part in the full-day event on 27 June 2014, which had a special focus on encouraging the development of mathematical thinking. The enrichment day programme included two plenary talks, by Professor Imre Leader and Professor David Tong. In addition, each student took part in two different small-group mathematical workshops over the course of the day.
Conducting scientific research is an experience that is rarely accessible outside universities. During a new project in the 2014/15 school year, however, a group of researchers from the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases aims to give secondary school pupils (Y9 or Y10) the opportunity to work on a real scientific research project. The research team is now inviting applications from schools to participate as a research partner school in the project.
Staff from NRICH and the Cambridge Mathematics Education Project are working with the Faculty of Mathematics, Cambridge Admissions Office and Cambridge colleges to run the Cambridge STEP Easter School in April 2014.
