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Education: Industry Links: A Success Story Author(s): Margaret Stanier Source: Mathematics in School, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 21-23 Published by: The Mathematical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30213785 . Accessed: 22/04/2014 09:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The Mathematical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Mathematics in School. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 156.35.64.58 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 09:12:45 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Education: Industry Links: A Success Story

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Education: Industry Links: A Success StoryAuthor(s): Margaret StanierSource: Mathematics in School, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 21-23Published by: The Mathematical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30213785 .

Accessed: 22/04/2014 09:12

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Mathematical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toMathematics in School.

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loymenftmafthemafics educafion and empk

Education - Industry Links: A Success Story

by Margaret Stanier, Ashlyns School, Berkhamsted, Herts.

An account of a project which is producing classroom materials to show young people ways in which they may be using mathematics when they are at work.

It is impossible to question the fact that there has been a severe lack of communication and understanding between mathematics teachers and those in industry responsible for recruiting and training young people. This article describes the work of the Mathematics in School and Industry Working Group of the Dacorum Education and Training Forum which we like to feel has gone some way towards improving this unfortunate and counterproductive state of affairs. We have not totally reformed either the mathematics syllabus or employers' selection tests in our area - indeed we have no intention of doing either. We do seem to have found a way of getting ordinary classroom teachers and people from industry to discuss the undeniable problems in a constructive fashion.

The Dacorum Education and Training Forum (Dacorum is the Western "corner" of Hertfordshire - Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamstead, Tring and the surrounding countryside) is a loose association of training officers, careers officers, schoolteachers and others. Initial contacts, between the forum and local mathematics teachers were in 1976, when a joint meeting aired the usual prejudices -

particularly the myth that arithmetic is no longer taught in schools. This was followed by a further meeting at which it was resolved to try to do something constructive about the obvious lack of mutual understanding. Three schools and three employers agreed to link in order to produce class- room materials showing young people ways in which they might need to use mathematics when they start work. This turned out to be very successful and five years later we are, basically, continuing with the scheme started at that meeting.

Organising Links We suggest the following guidelines for the organisation of links:

- A member of staff in each school should be responsible for co-ordinating the scheme. We have found that at our local level it works best if a teacher makes the first approach.

- That member of staff should make a preliminary visit to the firm involved, the main aim of which should be to identify possible areas of interest and to get some ideas for worksheets.

- Arrangements should then be made for as many teachers of mathematics as possible to visit the firm, having in mind a particular pre-arranged aspect for investigation. Each teacher is then asked to produce one (or more!) relevant worksheets which they feel able to use straight away with a class and which should fit in with the existing scheme of work.

- When a series of worksheets have been produced they should be shown to the firm before being used in the classroom.

- Arrangements should then be made for industrialists to visit the school, preferably to see the worksheets being used in the classroom - not always possible but ex- tremely worthwhile when it can be done.

It can be seen that we are not anticipating an increase in the curriculum - just a way of making what is being taught more relevant. The work that has been produced has been aimed at all ability levels depending on which groups the teachers concerned happen to be taking in a particular year. This is something that the employers in the group have been particularly pleased to see. It must however be admitted that the majority of what we have produced has been for less able pupils and that this has been a reflection of the poverty of published material aimed at this group. It has been most profitable both for general school morale and for pupils' motivation for outsiders to come into ordinary mathematics classrooms and explain that it is not just teachers who feel that mathematics is important and necessary.

The group meets every term, to set up new links and exchange worksheets, experiences and ideas. The firms involved have been engineering concerns, both large and small, a paper manufacturer and retail stores. All these contacts have been constantly encouraged and at times initiated by the careers service.

Products and Processes We feel that our work has resulted in considerably im- proved relationships between employers and teachers of mathematics and, as understanding of what is happening in schools increases, in a lessening of the once strident criti- cism of mathematics teaching. In particular, several firms have been prepared to discuss informally the aptitude tests which they set to school leavers and others have considered ways in which their instructors could possibly improve their teaching methods by discussing modern developments with teachers in schools. All the teachers who have taken part in the work of the group have commented most enthusiastically on the increased interest and motivation shown, in particular but not exclusively by less able 15 and 16 year olds, when presented with practical applications of mathematics in the "factory down the road". It might be worth noting that this increased motivation does not seem to depend entirely on career interest: for instance girls have

Mathematics in School, January 1983 21

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been as easy to interest in the engineering applications as boys. It is the fact that mathematics is seen as something which is really used in the adult world and not just enshrined in textbooks which would seem to be the impor- tant factor. I repeat here the recommendations which we made in our written submission to the Cockroft committee:

"It would be good to think that visits to industry by all those teaching mathematics to 15 and 16 year olds and their participation in this kind of school/industry liaison on a long-term continuing basis were considered an essential part of their in service training. We strongly support the idea of a national network of such links with some financial support and also provision to free teachers from the classroom for occasional contacts with local firms. We would express the hope that this would prove a far more effective way of ensuring that schools prepare young people adequately for employment than any attempt to impose on schools a curriculum or even part of a curriculum stipulated by industry."

It was not our intention and it would indeed not be possible with a local scheme such as this to come to any general conclusions concerning the mathematics required in employment. The following points have, however, emerged and may be of wider interest: - the use of trigonometry particularly in the engineering

industry, is far more widespread than most mathematics teachers realised;

- considerable difficulties are being experienced by young people, particularly the less able, because of the fact that they meet only metric units in school, whereas in employment, and indeed in their everyday life, they deal in a mixture of imperial and metric units. For instance, in the aerospace industry, imperial units will be required into the next century for the supply of spares and servicing of components. As this situation now seems unlikely to change for some considerable time, there is a strong case for teaching some elementary appreciation of imperial units and of the relationships between metric and imperial units in secondary schools;

- employers repeatedly emphasise the vital importance of being able to estimate a sensible answer before working out a problem and of working to sensible degrees of

accuracy. Mathematics teachers are very conscious of the difficulty of teaching these skills successfully.

We have been under considerable pressure from a num- ber of sources to make our work and materials widely available by publication. We feel very strongly that very few if any of our materials have any viability outside our local area and without the enthusiasm of the teachers who have been actively involved in preparing them. They are also by their very nature bound to become rapidly obsolete. We have eventually agreed to publish a booklet' which includes copies of 11 of our worksheets. In doing this we have expressed the hope that teachers will not be tempted to try to use them "cold". We tried to give some idea of what we have found possible and useful, and hope that we will have encouraged teachers in other parts of the country to use the resources available in their own local industries.

I include one example of these worksheets (Figures 1 and 2). It is based on work actually carried out in the offices of a small local manufacturer of catering equipment when up- dating price lists. The "product cost schedule" is a copy of one actually used; the prices shown on the information sheet were supplied by the firm as being "realistic but not genuine". This exercise is excellent practice in percentages over a wide ability range, and considerable interest has always been shown by pupils in the pricing method used. "Finding the percentage change" can be omitted for less able pupils.

Developments I may have appeared to set out the workings of a static scheme but obviously the way our group works evolves continuously. Recent concern over the high level of youth unemployment locally has made us emphasise "what is being done in local industry" rather more than "what you may find you have to do". The staff of the Adult Studies Department of the Local Further Education College, who run courses for the Youth Opportunities Programme, have become very actively involved. Pressures of staffing and resources which have been increasingly felt in our schools have affected our work and we try to be as "time-effective" as possible. A recent development has been the organisation of a workshop where individual teachers, in some cases from schools who had not previously been involved, were able to take part in visits and then devise worksheets

COSTING This table gives the information used to work out a new price list. Use it to fill in a "Product Cost Schedule" and to find the new Target Selling Price (TSP), the percentage change in TSP and a sensible value for the New Price List for each item.

Raw Bought-Out Sub-Contract Labour Last TSP Current Materials items Work e e list price

e e e e

G600 Gas 131.20 22.45 3.50 9.50 214.75 216.00 E600 Elec. 124.80 18.37 - 12.00 208.79 210.00 X1 600 Porringers 12.16 - 4.00 1.90 25.01 25.50 X2 600 Perforated Baskets - 16.00 4.00 - 18.50 19.00 X3 600 Perforated Base Plates 15.25 - 2.50 1.75 27.57 28.00

Fig. 1

22 Mathematics in School, January 1983

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PRODUCT COST SCHEDULE

Notes. Model/heat finish Raw Material, bought out items, subcontract costs, and labour are taken from costing records. Overhead is worked out as a percentage of labour.

Boling Pan 600 mm Date of costing for Price List

Computer Code G 600 E 600 X1 600 X2 600 X3 600

Perforated Perforated Detail Gas Elec. Porringers Baskets Base Plates

cost elements: e p e p f p f p e p raw material bought out items sub-contract work labour overhead (300%)

of labour

total I cost adjustments: 10% on Raw materials 5% on Labour

revised total cost add 10%

Target Selling Price last TSP % age change Current List Price New List Price

Notes

Fig. 2.

immediately afterwards in the local teachers centre. This was a successful experiment which we hope to repeat this summer. Another recent development has been the use of our contacts by one of our schools to widen the scope of their sixth form projects.

In short, this has proved a most worthwhile way of improving understanding and communication between teachers and employers and is not so difficult to set up as might be imagined. To anybody thinking of starting a similar scheme in their own area, I would say: - try to establish contact with employers -they are

interested! - avoid arguments about standards of arithmetic at all

costs; - encourage ordinary classroom teachers to visit and talk

to people in industry wherever possible; - encourage people from industry to visit your

classrooms; - and, most important, set yourself and everybody

else reasonable deadlines or you will never get round to doing anything at all.

Reference 1. "Why do we have to learn all this ...?", Dacorum Mathematics in

Schools and Industry Working group, available from Mrs M. R. Stanier, Ashlyns School, Chesham Rd, Berkhamsted. Price 80 p in- cluding postage.

SUMMER COURSE IN MATHEMATICS

A residential mathematics course for 13-17 year old secondary school students will be organized by Explorers U N Ltd. from the 7th till the 14th of August 1983.

Although priority will be given to children of members of the National Association for Gifted Children, applications will be considered from students (from Great Britain, and abroad) with a keen interest in the subject and endurance to work.

Further information about the contents of the course, and on booking is available from the tutor: Dr. Judita Cofman, 16 Cranford Lodge, 80 Victoria Drive, London SW19 6HH.

Mathematics in School, January 1983 23

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