Mary Immaculate College hosted two workshops for primary and secondary school teachers interested in Maths Circles, the workshops provided ideas, methodologies and practical advice on how to run a Maths Circle, but it was also an opportunity for like-minded teachers to get together and share their experience.
Maths Circles are lunch-time or after-school clubs, run by teachers in their schools. They provide learning activities in an informal setting that are designed to foster enjoyment of mathematics in young people. Their tradition goes back to more than a century in some countries in central and eastern Europe. In Ireland, Maths Circles were started successfully a few years ago in the Cork area.
The Maths Circles Ireland initiative offers teachers the opportunity to enhance their teaching of creative problem solving. Junior Enrichment participation would be a natural continuation for those students who attended a Maths Circle in Primary School or in their first year in Secondary School.
More information, including the Irish Maths Circles Handbook with fully-detailed and class room tested lesson plans, is available on mathscircles.ie.