Again this year, lectures across various disciplines are scheduled in the morning and afternoon sessions. It would probably be difficult to associate mathematics with neuroscience or cardiology at first sight, yet it is indispensable in these and other fields. "We are also expecting other interesting topics: the recent discovery of aperiodic paving of the plane by a single tile, statistics and heat conduction equations, and on top of that two lectures in the field of mathematics education," says the event organiser, doc. Ing. Lubomíra Dvořáková, Ph.D.
The programme is always delivered by leading experts in the application of mathematics in a variety of fields. In previous years, we have shown how mathematics helps in linguistics, somewhat undermining the cliché that one must either have a mathematics mind or a languages mind. Václav Moravec, presenter of the V. M. Questions show, introduced the audience to robotic journalism.
"We are trying to introduce various applications of mathematics to high school teachers at least in a framework and we hope that they will somehow be able to incorporate the knowledge gained into their teaching, for example, as motivation for various topics discussed at school," says one of the organizers of the event, doc. RNDr. Jan Vybíral, Ph.D. "Our expertise is applied mathematics, not pedagogy, and therefore we do not try to tell teachers how and what to teach, but we try to offer interesting topics," adds doc. Vybíral.
The event is also organized because schools have long been struggling with a decline in the number of students taking mathematics. In particular, a chart from data by Cermat company shows how interest in the maths exam has been declining over the last decade. As recently as 2014, it has been a choice of 36% of high school students, while only 17.8% have chosen it this year.
Mathematics is all around us. Without it, money and banking systems, industry, transport and computers would not work. "The importance of logical thinking, mathematics and its correct use in everyday life situations and in other scientific disciplines is continuously growing. Whether it is orientation in the flood of diverse information, the development of new materials or drugs, or the analysis of machine learning algorithms, the principles of mathematical reasoning are the key to analysing problems, navigating them and solving them successfully," says doc. Vybíral.
FJFI CTU organizes the event together with Faculty of Education of Charles University - thanks to this, the seminar is certified by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic and is thus included in the continuing education of teaching staff (DVPP). "The response is traditionally very positiveMany participants return to the event regularly. Also in the survey they repeatedly evaluate positively the interest of the lectures and the benefit of the whole event," adds doc. Vybíral.
In previous years, demand has exceeded capacity, so advance registration is required. For more information about the seminar and to register, please visit our website.
Photography from previus years can be found here.
Videorecordings of the previous years can be watched on YouTube.