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Ul Maths Lecturer saysThis dumbed down syllabus is a distortion of the mathematics required to equip our students for third-level !
Project Maths is not the answer to tough question
By Dr Eugene Gath Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Limerick
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
This dumbed down syllabus is a distortion of the mathematics required to equip our students for third-level education, writes Dr Eugene Gath
IT is widely accepted that there is a crisis in school-level maths, from early primary school up, including unqualified teachers, students leaving school innumerate, under-challenged students, and low numbers taking higher-level Leaving Certificate maths, not to mention the low standard of maths among many of those students who actually do get an honour.
Many readers may be aware of Project Maths, either through their own children or professionally. It was set up to address this crisis and is essentially the new maths for our schools.
One possibly welcome feature is that it eliminates all choice from Leaving Cert Maths and attempts to ask exam questions that are “unseen”, thereby stopping the cherry-picking of easy predictable questions and reducing the regurgitation without understanding that is currently rife.
That said, Project Maths is, in my view, a retrograde move. The main reason is that the proposed syllabus constitutes a major dumbing down of the current syllabus, as well as a sea-change in emphasis.
There are five strands — one of which is classical geometry (which disappeared from the syllabus 40-plus years ago), and another is probability and statistics, the content of which has been at least doubled. The syllabus is a complete distortion of the mathematics that is required to equip our students for a third-level study of the subject.
What disappears under Project Maths is most material on calculus, a lot of differentiation, almost all integration, as well as all vectors, all matrices, discrete maths and much more.
This material is the bread and butter of engineers, scientists, economists, financiers, computer scientists and, not least, statisticians. Yes, it is difficult, but almost every country exposes their students to the intellectual training and rigour of calculus at second level; soon our students will not know the integral of cosine.
The universities assume familiarity with this material in first-year maths classes: the impact will be to force the dumbing down of first-year university courses, not just in maths but also physics, applied maths, mechanics etc, thereby, for example, pushing topics such as Laplace Transforms, vector analysis and PDEs much later into the curriculum.
Today some of our best students have difficulty sustaining an algebraic calculation over a few lines; the new syllabus reduces the amount of time spent doing detailed calculations even further.
Do the engineering professional bodies realise the extent to which this runs counter to their stated goals? I wonder would they prefer for our Leaving Certificate students be well-versed in theorems of Euclid and conditional probabilities or in simple integration, vectors and matrices?
Another matter of concern is that Project Maths is very resource-intensive. It is more hands-on and uses lots of “laboratory” equipment that will be needed in every school (for example, students will be throwing dice to learn about probability). It will also require the retraining of most maths teachers.
Even if it results in higher participation rates, at what cost in terms of content and standards? Surely there are better ways to spend any additional funding of mathematics. The Government would do well to incentivise maths teaching as a career, as in other countries. The attitudes of students would change with a proper rewards system (such as bonus points, compulsory questions and so on).
Project Maths is not the answer to most of the problems mentioned above. It is seriously misguided and it will be very damaging in the long run.
* Dr Eugene Gath, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Limerick
Engineering Departments will require 28 hours extra teaching time as a result of Project maths
Maths lecturer at ITT gives Project maths Nil Points!
Project maths plan does not add up!
The following is a letter to the Irish times from Dr Cora Stack lecturer in maths at IT Tallaght
Sir, – If you look at the papers for project mathematics on the Department of Education website, and this is a very worthwhile exercise, you will notice a huge reduction in areas such as calculus and linear algebra, as well as corresponding significant increases in areas such as applied statistics and geometry in comparison to previous years.
I couldn’t see any question on group theory. I see very little on sequences and series, for example. I think the new syllabus should be called practical mathematics!
The demonstration of the intrinsic beauty of mathematics, which is often illustrated in techniques required to work out difficult integrals or inherent in what might be considered tricky mathematics (which always appealed to me), is being sacrificed in favour of this more practical approach.
I am always in favour of being able to apply mathematics in a practical way where feasible: and there are many students who may prefer this approach and who appreciate the value of the subject more by being exposed to these types of practical examples.
However, the inclusion of practical mathematics should not lead to the exclusion of a substantial amount of fundamental theory.
Students with high aptitudes for mathematics could find this course intellectually undemanding, inferior and unchallenging. This point was strongly made by recent students’ letters in this newspaper.
Excluding the introduction of fundamental concepts in calculus and algebra from the honours Leaving Cert syllabus may not be in the best interest of the better or more theoretically minded students.
Perhaps a choice of equally valued mathematics courses should be offered to reflect different types of learners in mathematics. – Yours, etc,
Dr CORA STACK,
Lecturer in Mathematics,
Institute of technology,
Tallaght,
Dublin.
Teachers and students express concerned about Syllabus
Projectmaths.com has been contacted by a large number of teachers and parents who are not sure what topics are on or not on the course .
Most teachers teaching ordinary level maths have spent time studying permutations and combinations but combinations are not on the course for Ord level they were removed in Septermber 2011. Many 5th year higher level students are studying the binomial Theorem its not on the course for 2013.
Students and teachers who need clarification on the syllabus should contact the NCCA .
Project Maths Solutions Now available
Project maths solutions now available for both Higher and Ord level just click the link below .
http://www.leavingcertsolutions.com/mall/leavingcertsolutions/products/product-2412839.stm
Project maths mock paper 2011
Report on Pre leaving examination 2011
Report on Pre leaving examination 2011
Higher Maths
This paper was set by the NCCA and the project maths Committee and supplied to pilot schools to use as a mock exam paper.
Paper 1
Section a Question 1: 25 marks
The question is broken up into 4 parts as follows
Part (a)(i),(ii)b,(iii)c,(b) .Very confusing a question with a part c followed by a part b !
The word microearthquake should be two words micro earthquake, a bit unfortunate choice of question considering what happened in Japan.
Part a (sorry the first part) was based entirely on logarithms.
Part b was a question based on rabbits and their breeding habits.
Question 2; 25 marks
Basically a depreciation question more logarithms required!
Question 3:25 marks
(a) Indices (b) inequality, again more logs required. Also the should have read .(c) (ii) Students were asked how they would use part c(i) to find the roots of a quartic equation?
Question 4: 25 marks
Complex numbers really just part (a) standard from the old course.
Section B
Question 5: 50 marks
A question based on a number pattern
Question 6; 50 marks
A combination of compound Interest and geometric series.
Section C (Functions and Calculus (old syllabus) 100 marks.
Question 7;
There is an issue with part b (ii) of this question you were asked to sketch the graph of
The graphs of this type of function were not part of the old syllabus!
They are not included on pages 10 and 11 of the old syllabus*.
Part © was really an applied maths question and would certainly have been very easy for students taking applied maths.
Question 8:
There is also an issue with question 8c involving a running track. This is clearly a question based on modelling, questions based on modelling are specifically excluded from syllabus pages 10 and 11.
Question 9:
There is also an issue with the definite integral .The limits look incorrect or very awkward.
Conclusion
The paper has three questions on Logs, two questions on number patterns ,one question on complex numbers
Three questions on calculus of which 2 of the questions had parts that are not on the course! There is no consistency in the standard of the questions asked .They are all over the place and it certainly asks questions about the competence of those setting this mock exam .They obviously do not know what is on the syllabus!
It is no wonder that many teachers in the pilot schools rejected this paper and set their own .Others replaced some of the questions with alternative questions.
The NCCA have written to the pilot schools telling them to ignore this paper and to concentrate on the sample papers supplied by SEC.
The cost of this debacle should be investigated and those held responsible should consider their position.
*In reply to a written question to NCCA on 11th /10/2010 regarding the calculus question the reply was “Only what’s on pages 10/11 applies in the unchanged part of the course .Thus modelling is not included for June 2011 candidates”
Paper 2
A full report on this paper in the next few days
But as with paper 1 there are issues again the people setting the paper do not know what is part of the syllabus and what is not!
Question 1 you were asked to solve this type of trigonometric equation is excluded from the course .See note on page 6 from project maths development team 2008 it states specifically that you cannot get “solve .Based on this information equations of this type are not covered in some text books!
There is no question on coordinate geometry of the line!
Mocks and Leaving Cer Ord Paper 1 Project maths.
The new sample paper 1 is as follows.
Q1 Algebra indices?Scientific Notation very similiar to present Q2 LC Ord .25 marks.
Q2 Compound Interest Finance maths similiar to present Q10 LC Ord .25 marks .
Q3 Complex Numbers same as old course .25 marks
Q4 Algebra same as old course but roots of cubic equations are gone! 25 marks
Q5 Sequences/Series If the real paper is anything like the sample this question will be a washout .50 marks.
Q6 Sequences/Series Sample question will mean nothing to Ord Level students rethink needed!
The real exam question will have to mean something to Ord level students for practice use Q5 Ord level paper 1.
Any two questions from 7,8,9
Q7 Differential Calculus ( Q6 old course)
Q8 Differential Calculus (Q7 old course)
Q9 Differential Calculus (Q8 old course)
Comment Cubics gone ,sequences/series increased will have to be modified,Calculus unchanged just worth 33% less.
Mock exams and project Maths (H)
With mocks just around the corner ,project schools have only one sample paper 1 to help them prepare .They can be assured that the mock Exam Paper 1 should be very similiar to the sample paper 1
Q1 Complex numbers(similiar to Q4 LCHP1) 25marks
Q2 Induction,Indices,Logs,Seriesremember APGP’s are gone as are the Sigma ntype (Similiar to LCHMQ5P1)25marks
Q3 Algebra same as Q1/Q2 LCHMP1 but the alpha,beatas are gone as is the proof of the factor theorem. 25 marks,
Q4 Algebra same as Q1/Q2 LCHMP1 but with a shorter syllabus. 25 marks .
Q5 more Algebra .The sample has a daft question on how to make a box (lifted from a UK O Level paper), 50 marks. So still 100 marks in total for algebra but from a much reduced syllabus.
Q6 “Finiancial maths” new but very similiar to LC Ord Level Question 10 Paper 2! 50 marks .Use past LC Ord level papers to practice this (Solutions available !)
Choose any 2 questions from 7,8,9
Q7 Differential Calculus (old course) 50 marks
Q8 Differential Calculus (old Course) 50 marks
Q9 Integral Calculus (old Course 50 marks
Comments : If You use past HL paper 1’s to prepare for this exam you will be well covered.
The only real difference is the finance maths and practice on Q10Paper2,LC Ord will cover most of what is required!
http://www.projectmaths.com/in…
http://www.projectmaths.com/index.php/news-comments/
changes to paper 1 2011
Project maths H 2011 layout of…
Project maths H 2011 layout of exam not decided but area and volume question is decided