IMPA launches the Olympic Girls project, with support from CNPq.
For some years now, IMPA has been implementing initiatives to encourage greater participation of girls in mathematics activities and olympiads, in an attempt to reduce barriers to access for women in the scientific field.
One of these measures was the inclusion of the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in the calendar of knowledge olympiads contested by teams trained by the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM). Another was the creation of the Girls' Olympic Trophy in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and in the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP).
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The exciting news is that, starting in 2019, more girls will receive support and training to excel in these competitions. To this end, the IMPA Girls in the Olympics Program was created.
With support from CNPq, the project aims to promote the effective participation of girls in activities related to mathematics, including school olympiads, so that they can become interested in and develop careers in the scientific and technological fields.
Marcelo Viana, Director-General of IMPA, comments on the importance of the initiative: “We are very excited about the approval of the IMPA Girls Olympics project. IMPA has been increasingly involved in important issues of basic education in our country, and this CNPq grant allows us to contribute to improving gender distribution in our field, in collaboration with our partner basic education schools.”
How it works
Initially, the IMPA Girls' Olympic Program will include the participation of five public schools in the State of Rio de Janeiro: Colégio Pedro II, Humaitá campus (South Zone of Rio); Escola Municipal Alberto José Sampaio (Taquara, West Zone); Colégio Militar do Rio de Janeiro; Colégio Estadual Matemático Joaquim Gomes de Sousa-Intercultural Brasil China (Niterói, city in the Metropolitan Region); and Escola Municipal Meninos de Deus (Nova Iguaçu, municipality in the Baixada Fluminense).
The overall coordination will be the responsibility of Leticia Rangel, a retired professor from the Colégio de Aplicação of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She will lead the five coordinators of the initiative in the schools, who will be assisted by five undergraduate students in Mathematics. CNPq will cover the costs of the scholarships for the coordinators and three undergraduate students, while IMPA will absorb the costs of the other two scholarships for the undergraduate students.
Leticia says the project's theme is challenging. "Bringing girls closer to science isn't just an issue in Brazil, but worldwide. Reflecting on and acting upon this is important."
According to the coordinator of the IMPA Girls Olympics program, IMPA made the right choice in selecting the Olympics as a starting point.
“Choosing this project and focusing on training for the Olympics can be an important path because it doesn't just benefit the girls. It also reaches the teachers and can change the way they perceive the students, seeing if they are motivated to act with a different perspective,” she emphasizes.
The teams will develop, in each school, complementary motivating and educational activities for classes of female students. The idea is that the meetings will be weekly. There will also be sessions to prepare the students for the school olympiads, as well as visits from participating schools to IMPA for activities such as lectures and workshops. Furthermore, projects to popularize mathematics will be developed in the participating schools, which should be presented by the students and teachers at their own school and at the Mathematics Festival and National Science and Technology Week 2019.
The activities will take place throughout 2019, according to each institution's school calendar. There will be no limit on the number of participating girls and boys in each class, but each class will have only three junior scientific initiation scholarships for female students chosen by the coordinators.
The scholarship recipients' contribution is the development and presentation of a project to promote mathematics at the Mathematics Festival. It is worth noting that, although boys can participate in the program's activities, only girls will be eligible to receive the junior scientific initiation scholarships.
Leticia Rangel emphasizes that the project will not highlight the differences in access to science between female and male students, so that the issue is not perceived as a difficulty.
“We want them to realize that access to mathematics and the exact sciences, in general, is natural, so that they don't see it as an additional challenge, but as part of a process in which they are involved. The participation of the undergraduate students is fundamental, because it will trigger a change that they will carry with them throughout their lives,” she concludes.
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