Tag: statistics

The MCM team wishes Merry Christmas

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

Dear MathCityMap users,

the year 2021 is now slowly coming to an end and although many things did not go as planned for many people, there were a lot of positive events and developments here at MathCityMap. With the turn of the year and the holidays in sight, now is the right time for a short look back:

  • Over 12,000 new tasks were created in the system this year, so we now count a total of almost 30,000 tasks in the MathCityMap portal, of which about 10,500 tasks have been published. The number of tasks created has almost doubled within the last year!
  • A total of 32,000 mathtrails were downloaded in 2021. In addition, 1,300 Digital Classrooms were conducted with a total of approximately 8,800 participants and nearly 3,500 badges were awarded to MCM authors.
  • We also saw a significant increase in the number of registered users: Approximately 3,800 new MathCityMap users have registered in the system, bringing the MCM community to 10,000 members.
  • But not only the MCM community grew strongly, also our team could report some new members. We are very happy to welcome Tim Läufer, Jos Fabiunke, Rebecca Stäter and Philipp Larmann. In addition, Ivan Gurjanow and Simone Jablonski successfully completed their doctorates.
  • Our Erasmus+ project MaSCE³ (Math Trails in School, Curriculum and Educational Environments of Europe) is also being continued successfully. Therefore, we would like to thank our European partners from Portugal, France, Estonia and Spain. In particular, we would like to mention the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) that took place in the spring of this year. A very successful online training series in which more than 100 teachers from all over the world were trained to become real MathCityMap experts.
  • In general, there were again many international events with MCM this year. From mathtrail events in Santander (Spain) to presentations at international conferences such as PME or ICTMT to teacher trainings in Portugal, Spain and Indonesia, there were again a variety of activities that brought MathCityMap closer to researchers, teachers and students.
  • Also as part of the MaSCE³ project, we were able to award the official title of “MathCityMap Partner School” for the first time. Gymnasium Trudering successfully completed the application process and can now benefit from our international network in a unique way. In addition, the students received a package with measurement tools for working on math trails in class.
  • A lot has also happened in the field of virtual teaching and distance learning. The concept of MCM@Home has been continuously developed over the past year into a stand-alone system and we are very pleased that ASYMPTOTE will be available as early as spring 2022.

Especially despite the pandemic-related restrictions this year, we are even more excited about the fantastic and exciting developments of the MCM system and last but not least the community. Without your joy in discovering and creating new tasks and mathtrails, this project would never be where it is now and therefore we would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you. Thank you for filling this digital system for school practice with life again and again and carrying it further into your communities.

We wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2022. We are already looking forward to welcoming many new members to the MCM community and discovering new, exciting tasks around the world. Stay healthy!

Your MathCityMap Team Frankfurt

Task(s) of the Week: MCM meets Statistics

Author Simone JablonskiDate
Task of the Week

This week, we would like to introduce you to a whole series of tasks in the Task of the Week section. Mathias Bärtl, Professor at the University of Offenburg, became aware of MathCityMap and adapted the system for students of his statistics lecture, for example in the task “Advertisement in the Subway”.

Task: Advertisement in the Subway

ONE STEP AHEAD Fitness would like to draw attention to visitors and place an advertising at the station “U2 Messehallen”, at the escalator to the “Karolinenstraße – Marktstraße – Hamburg Messe”.
Let’s say that an advertising must be on average for 25 seconds in the field of vision of a person before it is recognized, and that this range of vision here is between the first and penultimate emergency stop. Give the result as a whole percentage (say 25, if your computation is 0.252).

Using escalator speed and exponential distribution as a distribution function, the students can solve the task. In the interview, Mathias Bärtl himself gives an insight into the idea of ​​using MathCityMap for students.

In what context did you use MathCityMap? How did you hear about the project?

I got to know the MathCityMap project in March 2018 at the joint annual meeting of the GDMV in Paderborn. However, as so often not in a presentation, but in a casual conversation with the inventor of the app in the bus on our way to the conference. The combination of digital media, city exploration and work in a team on concrete objects inspired me immediately. I could imagine that even students feel appealed when being challenged with more demanding tasks. For me, this opens up a good opportunity to use contents of the statistics lecture in practical situations and a motivating environment.

What content and competences are used in your trail? Which target group is addressed?

The trail puts the participants – students of business related subjects – in the situation of a project manager, who should prepare the market introduction of fitness equipment. For this purpose, different places of Hamburg must be visited and analyzed under certain questions. My focus during the development was to pick up the contents of the statistics lecture and embed it in a coherent overall story, which at the same time requires the exploration of exciting places. Admittedly, I have not started primarily with the definition of desired competences. Ultimately, however, the tasks developed are to be assigned to mathematical modeling and solution. In terms of content, the areas of probability calculation, estimation and testing, but also correlation and regression are covered.

Have you already tested the trail and received feedback?

I did a test run with two students. It was about a test of the comprehensibility and feasibility of the individual tasks as well as an examination of the temporal approach. Of course, this cannot be considered as a test under scientific aspects. The two participants were extremely motivated and feedback like “It was really fun! I think that it will leave a positive impression on students.” promises that the idea will be well received on a larger scale, and I’m looking forward to offering it as an elective course with an excursion in the future.

We thank you for the interview and the great implementation of the MathCityMap idea in a new context.