It took four years (1985-89) and a lot of design help to make a
public exhibition "Mathematics and knots", and this talk will
describe and demonstrate some of what we learned in the process,
and the extra contacts that resulted. The design team was R. Brown,
N.D. Gilbert, T. Porter. Two slogans were used: "advanced
mathematics from an elementary viewpoint"; "explaining the methods
of mathematics to the general public". In 1996 we got involved in
web work, and in 2000 in producing a CDRom, under an EC grant for
European Science and Technology Week 2000, coordinated by Professor
Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel (Paris), under the title "Raising Public
Awareness of Mathematics". The CDrom was launched at Óbidos
in November, 2000, (
http://www.spm.pt/~spm/Ano2000/lancamentoCDROM.html)
with the support of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemática.
Curiously, the collaboration with the sculptor John Robinson was a
result of a chance encounter through our involvement in Royal
Institution Mathematics Masterclasses for 13 year olds, which
started in 1985, and have had continued support from Anglesey
Aluminium. So the presentation will also explain how the work on
popularisation has influenced us. Tim Porter (Bangor) will be
involved in the presentation and discussion.
Final questions: Is it a good idea to popularise mathematics to our
students? And what would that mean and imply?
We have recently revised our web sites with funding from EPSRC and
the continued advice and support of Edition Limitée and John
Robinson. The new url is
http://www.cpm.informatics.bangor.ac.uk.
