Have You Seen This?... Mathematical skills in the Workplace / Something that worked for me... Who wants to be... The Use of a Personal Response System in Statistics Teaching

Mathematical Skills in the Workplace: The seriousness of the shortage of mathematical literacy skills in the UK working population is made explicit in a recent report from the Science Technology and Mathematics Council (STMC), where the extent and lack of mathematical skills in the workforce are given. The report, launched on 13 January by Lord Sainsbury, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, Department of Trade and Industry, made recommendations under the following headings: 1. Raising Visibility and Awareness of the Importance of Mathematical Literacy in the Workplace; 2. Generate models for training/Professional Development to promote mathematical literacy; 3. Identify/further define core concepts which provide the basis of mathematical literacy – this has implications for pre-employment education and training; 4. Communications with employers should recognise that employers need to understand the mathematical literacy they can expect from national qualifications ……The Use of a Personal Response System in Statistics Teaching… In the popular TV programme “Who wants to be a millionaire?” the candidates can ask the audience to help them answer a difficult question. The public picks up its handsets and votes for several possible answers. The votes are anonymous and show up as a bar chart on the screen. Essentially it is this technology and the implementation thereof in a statistics course taught to non-statistics undergraduate students that is central to an article we will be carrying in the May newsletter.