Career Mathways
Career Mathways is a novel and exciting project designed for Transition Year students and teachers. The project was designed by a team of mathematics education researchers based in EPISTEM, the national centre for STEM education. The project was funded under the SFI Discover scheme, which sought to promote the awareness and engagement of the Irish public with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Career Mathways aims to highlight the mathematics underpinning a variety of careers, as a way of enhancing student engagement across all STEM subjects. The project engages with several well-known, high-profile personalities (e.g. Jacqui Hurley [RTÉ Sports Correspondent]; Lizzie Lyons [TV3 Chef & Entrepreneur]; Dean Strang [‘Making a Murderer’ Lawyer]; Joanna Donnelly [Meteorologist, Met Eireann]) and other professionals, who all kindly volunteered their time to act as STEM Ambassadors. There are 17 STEM Ambassadors/careers in total.
Our STEM Ambassadors were interviewed about the ways in which they utilise mathematics in their careers and highlight how important is it to have a good understanding of mathematics and be proficient in the subject. These videos serve to make mathematics more visible and fascinating to students and it is hoped that it will help teachers when faced with the common question “Where will I use this again?” .
The videos underpin a suite of teaching and learning resources including detailed and innovative teaching and learning plans; student workbooks featuring authentic, real-world problems as well as tailored PowerPoint presentations for each lesson, to highlight how valuable mathematics is in a variety of different professions. These resources have been piloted in Transition year mathematics classes in over 20 schools across the country. They are now are available to all teachers of mathematics on the ‘Career Mathways’ tab above.