Let's talk about outreach!

Oct 23, 2022, 7:00 PM → Oct 29, 2022, 7:00 PM Europe/Zurich

César Humerose (University of Geneva), Elise Raphael (Université de Genève), Joana Mailler, Pierre-Alain Cherix, Shaula Fiorelli (Université de Genève)

We propose a conference on outreach bringing together its different actors and its different aspects. The program will be divided into three parts:

1. Outreach actors: who does outreach ? : On the occasion of this conference, various actors of outreach, YouTubers, researchers, science center managers, will come to talk about their profession and their methods. Speakers include:

• Aurélien Alvarez (ENS Lyon)
• Maria Dedò (formerly University of Milan)
• Cindy Lawrence (MoMath)
• Andreas Matt (IMAGINARY)
• Ayliean MacDonald
• Olga Paris-Romaskevich (CNRS & University of Aix-Marseille)
• Hugo Parlier (University of Luxembourg) & Paul Turner (University of Geneva)
• Erika Roldan (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences and the Center for Scalable Data analytics and Artificial intelligence at Leipzig University.)

2. The outreach, what’s that all about ? : Through talks and working sessions, participants will be able to familiarize themselves with research in outreach which is in its beginning. We will start by understanding how a theoretical reflection on practices can change the way we present concepts, and then we will think about which theoretical frameworks to put in place to analyze our practices.

3. Getting hands-on : Participants will be invited to experience outreach as learners during some workshops. Material will also be available on an ongoing basis so that participants can experience it whenever they wish. In addition, there will be work sessions specifically dedicated to the creation of new activities.

 

On Saturday, October 29th all participants will be invited to take part in a maths festival in the village. It will be the opportunity to try new activities on a general audience and share with everyone the joy of doing mathematics.

2022 10 Les Diablerets Decade of MoMath final.pdf

2022 10 Les Diablerets Decade of MoMath final.pptx

Monday, October 24

9:00 AM → 10:15 AM Quelques réflexions sur la vulgarisation mathématique

Lecture in French with slides in English
La vulgarisation mathématique n’est pas un sujet nouveau puisqu’on cite parfois l’Arénaire, ouvrage écrit par Archimède au IIIe siècle avant J.-C., comme premier exemple d’un texte mathématique destiné à un public non-mathématicien. Pour autant la question est légitime : pourquoi dédions-nous du temps à la vulgarisation mathématique ? Dans cet exposé, j’aimerais partager quelques réflexions sur cette activité et son positionnement par rapport à l'enseignement et la recherche.

Speaker: Aurélien Alvarez (ENS Lyon)

10:15 AM → 10:45 AM Coffee break

10:45 AM → 12:00 PM Creation, interaction and participation in mathematics communication

In my talk, I take you along on a grand tour of interactive tools and programs that we have developed within IMAGINARY in the last 15 years. IMAGINARY is a non-profit organization with a focus on creating participatory formats of communicating mathematics together with an international community. We will experiment and play together with many examples of "explorables", “games”, "sandbox tools” or “collaborative challenges” that invite a wide audience to interact with different types of mathematics. Topics include geometry, mathematics and music, artificial intelligence or climate modelling. All examples introduce our concept of participation, that I will introduce along with the role of open licenses and how to break with classical communication hierarchies.

More info about IMAGINARY: https://about.imaginary.org

Speaker: Andreas Matt (IMAGINARY)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM Activities development: The idea is good, but... & Let's dream

In the "Activities development" sessions, the aim is to develop new activities based on the participants' proposals.
Each of the three workshops will work as follows: participants will briefly present the activities they want to develop (max 5 minutes) and then the other participants will be able to choose which activity they want to work on, forming small working groups (3 to 5 people). Not all the activities presented will necessarily be worked on. Each group will be given some free time to develop the activity independently. Finally, there will be a pooling of progress at the end of the afternoon.
All the activities developed during these workshops will be freely usable by all the participants and a description will be put online to diffuse them under a Creative commons license.

Tuesday, October 25

9:00 AM → 10:15 AM A Decade of MoMath: TENacity, InTENsity, PoTENtial

Speaker: Cindy Lawrence (MoMath)

10:15 AM → 10:45 AM Coffee break

10:45 AM → 12:00 PM Informal learning - inside and outside classroom

Informal learning activities can be a powerful tool to give meaning to what we learn, not only in a context like an exhibition, where we expect to find them, but also in the context of a classroom. Special care should be taken in the transition from an informal level to a more systematic one: else we risk to waste all the advantages given by an informal way of learning. Some examples will be illustrated in order to give supporting evidence to these ideas.

Speaker: Maria Dedò (formerly University of Milan)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM Activities development: The idea is good, but…

In the "Activities development" sessions, the aim is to develop new activities based on the participants' proposals.
Each of the three workshops will work as follows: participants will briefly present the activities they want to develop (max 5 minutes) and then the other participants will be able to choose which activity they want to work on, forming small working groups (3 to 5 people). Not all the activities presented will necessarily be worked on. Each group will be given some free time to develop the activity independently. Finally, there will be a pooling of progress at the end of the afternoon.
All the activities developed during these workshops will be freely usable by all the participants and a description will be put online to diffuse them under a Creative commons license.

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM How to...: Targeting an activity

The "How to..." workshops seek to define good practices or share expertise on the creation of activities around five themes.

Wednesday, October 26

8:30 AM → 12:30 PM How to...: Emotional maths

The "How to..." workshops seek to define good practices or share expertise on the creation of activities around five themes.

8:30 AM → 12:30 PM Meta: One platform to unite them all

The two "Meta" workshops are dedicated to taking a step back and sharing outreach activities.

Thursday, October 27

9:00 AM → 10:15 AM TBA

Speaker: Olga Paris-Romaskevich

10:15 AM → 10:45 AM Coffee break

10:45 AM → 12:00 PM The Maths Nerd Starter Kit 2022

There’s nothing better than finding somewhere you can geek out and unleash your love for Maths (like SRS!) but how do we create these spaces and connect Future Math Nerds with a community which is right for them?

In this talk:
Good starting points for people about to enter their Mathematical coming of age
An exploration of different Maths communities on different platforms
Highlighting the challenges the people of Maths face in overcoming gender bias, poverty, racism, ableism and other forms of discrimination (the Maths world exists in, and reflects, the wider world after all)
Appealing to different senses through art, music, manipulatives and storytelling to make Maths more accessible, and potentially even convert number-phobes!

The practice of Maths has been a constant throughout human history, across continents and cultures. In the present day most people recognise that Maths is used in industry to make our lives better, and often overlook the joy that recreational Maths can bring.
Either way Maths is present in every corner of life - so the more people are able to appreciate it the more layers of appreciation they can have for life itself.
Maths Communicators assemble!

Speaker: Ayliean MacDonald

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM Activities development: Visualization

In the "Activities development" sessions, the aim is to develop new activities based on the participants' proposals.
Each of the three workshops will work as follows: participants will briefly present the activities they want to develop (max 5 minutes) and then the other participants will be able to choose which activity they want to work on, forming small working groups (3 to 5 people). Not all the activities presented will necessarily be worked on. Each group will be given some free time to develop the activity independently. Finally, there will be a pooling of progress at the end of the afternoon.
All the activities developed during these workshops will be freely usable by all the participants and a description will be put online to diffuse them under a Creative commons license.

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM How to...: Fictionalization

The "How to..." workshops seek to define good practices or share expertise on the creation of activities around five themes.

Friday, October 28

9:00 AM → 10:15 AM Exploring Quadratis puzzles

This talk will be about a project aiming to illustrate geometry using a new family of reconfiguration puzzles inspired by topological and geometric constructions of surfaces. The puzzles inhabit a virtual, rather than physical, world and their "spaces” of possible configurations can be explored through visualization. So far the main outputs are a science centre installation, called Exploratis, developed in conjunction with the Luxembourg Science Centre and Quadratis - Game consisting of 16 puzzles packaged into an app. We will describe both of these, give our motivations (which go back to the interactive book Mathema), and outline the successes, the failures, and some of the problems encountered. Finally, we will attempt to draw some lessons from what we learned along the way.
Links:
https://quadratis.app/
https://www.unige.ch/~turnerpa/Quadratis.html

Speakers: Hugo Parlier (University of Luxembourg), Paul Turner (University of Geneva)

10:15 AM → 10:45 AM Coffee break

10:45 AM → 12:00 PM From accidental to intentional outreach: towards outreach as a commitment to increase inclusive culture in STEAM

Outreach in STEAM should give us the power to create spaces and moments for sharing the enjoyment and passion for mathematics and its applications with people from all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds and identities. It should also open opportunities for underrepresented communities within our fields to consider studying and projecting a career in STEAM. But are we reaching this goal? What tools and means are we putting into place to make it happen?

In my talk, I will address the importance of developing and implementing outreach activities with an inclusive culture. I will share examples from activities in Mexico, the USA, and Switzerland that will allow us to reflect on how to tackle challenges from each particular context and community.

Speaker: Erika Roldan

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM Activities development: Let’s dream (activities from scratch)

In the "Activities development" sessions, the aim is to develop new activities based on the participants' proposals.
Each of the three workshops will work as follows: participants will briefly present the activities they want to develop (max 5 minutes) and then the other participants will be able to choose which activity they want to work on, forming small working groups (3 to 5 people). Not all the activities presented will necessarily be worked on. Each group will be given some free time to develop the activity independently. Finally, there will be a pooling of progress at the end of the afternoon.
All the activities developed during these workshops will be freely usable by all the participants and a description will be put online to diffuse them under a Creative commons license.

2:00 PM → 7:00 PM How to...: Math & art

The "How to..." workshops seek to define good practices or share expertise on the creation of activities around five themes.

Saturday, October 29

11:00 AM → 6:00 PM Festival Math'émerveille - Même pas peur des maths