Resources

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Palakkad Math Circle is an IIT Palakkad outreach initiative to provide a friendly, stable, and continual learning space that promotes a mathematical culture - one that cultivates awareness and appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematical ideas and logical thinking - in the local community.

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This program is primarily targeted at high school students and is based on the idea of a Math Circle - an outreach program that brings professional mathematicians into direct contact with high school students. As of Apr 2024, around 60 students from 19 schools in Palakkad and Chittur educational sub-districts enrolled in the program. The program actively seeks the participation of teachers from local schools and considers their role to be central to the goal of having an impact at the community level.

What is a Math Circle?

Thirty to forty high school students meet with a mentor for a couple of hours in an informal setting on weekends to work on interesting problems or topics in mathematics

Purpose

  • To cultivate awareness and appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematical ideas towards understanding the world.

  • To dispel anxiety and fear of mathematics among school students

Features

  • Engaging. The fundamental goal of the math circle session is to engage youngsters through creative means such as a game, an activity, or an enticing problem.

  • No set syllabus. The objective is not to cover material but to select topics that have potential to make an engaging session.

  • Teacher involvement. School teachers are encouraged to participate in the sessions for a wider outreach beyond the selected students.

  • Interactive. A math circle gathering resembles a kindergarten classroom more than a college lecture.

  • Voluntary. Participation is voluntary but commitment is expected.

  • ​​Accelerated learning. Sessions led by professional mathematicians who present the content at a deep level. This helps accelerate the students' learning beyond their grade and also ensures that some of the occasional profound questions raised by the students get the attention they demand.

How does it work?

  • IIT Palakkad selects a small group of 8th and 9th standard students from schools in Palakkad and Chittur educational subdistricts at the beginning of an academic year.

  • The selected group meets on the second Saturday and the fourth Sunday of every month for a half-day session till the students complete their 10th standard.

  • Each session focuses on a particular math topic and the students learn from and interact (in English/Malayalam/Tamil) with mentors who are passionate about that topic.

  • Sessions held at the IIT campus and transportation from and to Palakkad town are arranged.

  • No fee or attendance or examinations. Wherever possible, study material is provided.

Apart from the regular sessions, a few of the activities conducted by the Palakkad Math Circle team are listed below.

One-Day Attachment Programme at C-SiS (10 Feb 2024)

The Centre for Science in Society (C-SiS) is a center for the popularization of science and technology located on the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) campus. The Centre aims to create scientific awareness among students through play models. The Centre has facilities like a library, science labs, math lab, and science parks. where students can “see” the theories that they have encountered in the textbooks come alive. The Centre has a One-Day Attachment Programme (ODAP) where these facilities are reserved for a day and students with their teachers are allowed to spend the day at the Centre interacting with the models and exhibits, and engaging in various activities. The Palakkad Math Circle students were taken to spend a day at CSiS by Math/CSE faculty from IIT Palakkad. Students visited the above-mentioned facilities and participated in several experiments and activities during this day-long program. This (we believe) gave them a different perspective on science and enabled them to see the application of scientific principles. We also hope that this experience will help them understand and appreciate school science better. The visit also benefited us in that it gave us some thoughts on a future Science & Technology Center and Museum planned at our institute.

Teachers Workshop - Making Connections in Mathematics (27 Feb 2024)

We organized a workshop for teachers with the objective of enabling teachers to make connections - across various content areas of mathematics and apparently disparate mathematical ideas, and to see the mathematics underlying everyday activities, even art. The workshop sessions were chosen in such a way as to support teachers to make these connections. The workshop had 3 sessions:

  • on connecting the history of mathematics to pedagogical moves to clarify an important concept from the secondary school mathematics textbook and to understand common errors that students make in the light of the historical development of this idea

  • on multiple representations and connections between them with focus on visual representations of an abstract idea from higher secondary school syllabus

  • a demonstration of elements of mathematics (also encountered in secondary/senior secondary mathematics textbooks) present in music.

The workshop was attended by 42 teachers from schools in Palakkad and 2 Block Resource personnel. The sessions were anchored by external experts invited for the purpose. The music and mathematics session brought together a team of musicians and a mathematics expert.

Panel Discussion on Building Partnerships in Science (18 Mar 2024)

With a view of understanding better how we as an Institute could build partnerships with agencies that work in school education (SCERT, SSK) and contribute to society, we organized a panel discussion on the topic “Building Partnerships in Science” and invited experts who have contributed much in this direction. Our panelists included Dr. Jahnavi Phalke, Dr. N. Shaji, Sh. C Riswan, Dr. B Shaji, and Dr. P Shaiju. As the founding director of Science Gallery, Bengaluru, Dr. Jahnavi Phalke brings with her the experience of enabling a proactive public engagement in science by designing research festivals, interdisciplinary exhibitions, and other public events bringing together the sciences, engineering, art, and culture. Dr. N. Shaji and Sh. C Riswan bring the rich experience of science popularization at the grassroots level through their pioneering roles in the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) and as editors of popular science magazines. Dr. B Shaji and Dr. P Shaiju have hands-on involvement in the programmes of Samagra Shishsha Keralam (SSK) that span the entire state of Kerala. Prof. Seshadri Sekhar (Director, IIT Palakkad) also participated in the discussion. Drawing inspiration and ideas from these luminaries, we have identified some potential areas where we can contribute and partner with agencies who are already working in these directions. The first among these - a month-long puzzle series with LUCA - was launched on May 1, 2024.