18/05/2018

At the British School, girls dominate the Math Club.

Marcelo Viana com fundadoras do clube e a professora Elaine West

When teacher Elaine West, from the British School – Barra unit, announced in the middle of class that those interested in creating a Math Club should contact her during recess, she had no idea that the notice would be heeded so promptly. Nor that she would find a group made up entirely of girls at her classroom door, eagerly waiting to join the new initiative.

IMPA and SBM launch national journalism award.

The ten founders of the Johnson-Clarke Mathematics Club, for their part, never imagined that, shortly after deciding to dedicate half an hour of recess to solving problems from the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools), they would have as their activity showing Marcelo Viana, director-general of IMPA, the institution responsible for creating and organizing the competition, through the school hallways.

In addition to the annual exam, held since 2005, OBMEP includes other activities, such as the club formation project, designed to encourage the study of Mathematics. It was in this context that, after participating in OBMEP, which opened last year to the private school network as well, the British School of Barra decided to create its own club, an initiative of Elaine and the institution's Mathematics director, Michael Francis.

As estudantes contaram que, em casa, não falta incentivo para a Matemática

Four of the club's founders, Gabriela Pires, Yerin Cho, Stephanie Widermann, and Maria Eduarda Scalestky – all between 11 and 14 years old and students in grades equivalent to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade – showed Viana the main facilities of the British School. Viana, at the invitation of the Mathematics director, visited the bilingual school, where approximately 2,000 students study. Besides Barra, in the West Zone, the group, founded in Rio in 1924, has two units in the South Zone (Botafogo and Urca).

After having lunch in the cafeteria, Viana and the students talked about their shared passion: Mathematics. Since research has already revealed that a lack of encouragement is one of the causes behind the significant gender gap in the field, the director-general of IMPA wanted to know about their experiences. According to their accounts, the girls were encouraged to take an interest in the subject. Gabriela, the daughter of engineers, said that the topic arose almost naturally at home. This also occurred with students whose parents pursued professions unrelated to Mathematics, such as Maria Eduarda, the daughter of lawyers.

Na apresentação do clube, as alunas destacaram a OBMEP e o PIC

Viana met two students from the British University who, having won medals in 2017, are participating in the Scientific Initiation Program (PIC): Rafael Freire and Pedro Fortes, respectively from level 1 (6th and 7th grade of Elementary School) and 2 (8th and 9th grade of Elementary School), won bronze.

Next, for about 70 students and parents, the founders of the Johnson-Clarke Mathematics Club recounted how the club came about and pointed out their inspirations: the American Katherine Johnson, who in 2018 would have turned 100 and at NASA, the American space agency, made fundamental contributions to space exploration; and Joan Clarke (1917-1996), a British cryptanalyst who helped break codes of secret Nazi messages during the Second World War.

Then it was Viana's turn to give a brief presentation about IMPA, highlighting its activities in scientific production, training of new researchers – through master's, doctoral and post-doctoral courses – and dissemination of mathematical culture in Brazil. In addition to OBMEP, the director-general of IMPA emphasized the activities of the Mathematics Biennium, such as the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), which took place last year in Rio, and the ICM (International Congress of Mathematicians), to be held from August 1st to 9th at Riocentro.

Diretor de Matemática da escola, Michael Francis apresenta Marcelo Viana

According to him, actions to increase the visibility of Mathematics and show how fundamental it is to the economic and social progress of any country are very necessary. As proof of this, he cited the results of research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), responsible for the triennial assessment of 15-year-old students in 70 countries, the PISA. When asked about their level of exposure to Pure and Applied Mathematics, the responses from Brazilian students placed the country among the worst performers.