Responses

=Responses=

Use this page to record your responses to the show. Longer responses could be uploaded as a word document. Remember that the discussion tab can be used to comment on responses as well.

//This was the most amazing exhibition I have ever seen. It really had a profound impact on me and made me realise just how insignificant I am as just one person on this planet. Many of the piles were so moving, others made me feel indignant - all of them provoked a reaction of some kind. Why couldn't one of the millionaire grains have saved the pile of children who died for lack of a vaccine? It would have cost him so little! What does Christiano Ronaldo do that is worth so much more than a single NQT? The numbers who died in the holocaust were just unbearable to look at. The opportunities for maths work in setting up something like this are endless - and so much more interesting than filling in worksheets!
 * Ros Evans, York St John University** //

Breathtaking! What a simple idea with so much potential. I am still buzzing with possibilities having seen it. What I enjoyed most was the brilliant juxtaposition of some of the piles of rice. Some that I spotted at the time but others that I had pointed out to me afterwards, like the number of people at Diana's funeral next to deaths from landmines. Really a great show. //**Jim Noble, International School of Toulouse**

1 grain of rice = 1 person 60 grains = 1 gram 60 million grains = 1 ton Every stat under 200 is counted by hand.

Two events led me to push for Stan's Cafe to visit ATM Easter conference at this year. In February 2008 my teenage daughter were on a shopping trip and dropped into Truro Cathedral, as I had wind of an interesting 'exhibition' that used rice to represent world statistics. We wandered the installation in wonder. We talked and laughed and felt moved to tears. As someone with a sociology degree and now a mathematics educator, I was very excited about the educational and emotional possibilities Of All the People in all the World. In 2003 Barbara and Derek Ball gave the opening address to the Easter conference ofthe ATM. It was a personal account of their experiences as mathematics educatiors. In it they said much that was thought provoking, but one thing stayed with me. Derek described an end of term concert given at Barbara's secondary school in 2001, at which pupils of all musical abilities had worked together to produce a musical event of which they were involved and very (rightly) proud. On the way home, Derek asked Barbara what the mathematical equivalent might be. Unusually for Barbara, she didn't have a reply. Could Stan's cafe be one reply to this? I feel I am in the presence of something spectacular when I walk the installation. Could we involve learners of mathematics working together to prepare and present some mathematics which involved them in researching, using and applying their mathematics to life?

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 * What I would like to do now** is to start by discussing what this has made us think about, and, then gradually share some ideas on how we could use this as a stimulus for some mathematics if our classes haven't seen the show.
 * Tony Cotton (Leeds) and Laurinda Brown (Bristol) wrote their thoughts immediately after seeing the exhibition at the ATM conference. **

**Laurinda writes:** An A4 piece of paper with black writing at the bottom – Ada Lovelace – a single grain of rice is placed on the piece of paper. I imagine another piece of paper with a single grain of rice with ‘me’ on it. As I turn around I notice a large piece of paper with a mountain of rice on – all those ‘me’s’ – how many? How would I estimate? How would I work out the volume of that solid? It’s a ridge, not a pyramidical or conical mountain. I walk over and read the black writing – the number of victims of the holocaust. It’s the juxtapositions that attract my attention in this room, lit through windows at one end with light slanting in early morning and these still, silent shapes bearing witness.

**Tony writes:** ** Mathematics can give us the power to understand and interpret the world. ** How long does it take to count to 6 million? People I have asked this question of tell me about three months, so long as we don’t count ourselves to sleep. When I tell them that six million Jews died in the holocaust the atmosphere changes – we can suddenly contemplate the meaning and immensity of 6 million. Stan’s Café provides a contemplative space – we can see how individuals are packed together on the Gaza Strip. There is no space on the paper. In Israel, the grains have space to spread. I find myself wondering which other populations children would be interested in modeling – could they predict how the rice would spread? How would they ‘count out the grains’ when the numbers are too big to count? The pile representing the number of child soldiers in the world is juxtaposed with the populations of Manchester. They look about the same. What other interesting juxtapositions would my learners engage with?


 * Work with a group of Year 7 students**

As promised on the 'Ideas' page - a few photos of Bristol students' work:





The first is of numbers of children in Bristol who are obese/non-obese. The second is the capacity of three local sports stadia. The thrid is a group comparing the capacities of Wembley and Old Trafford.


 * So - what has this made you think about? what are your reactions?

Helen Williams, ATM member and early years' educator, Cornwall**