Overview

As part of our annual KS4 enrichment provision, we have teamed up again with Teesside university and organised our traditional Christmas Lecture.

This year our guest speaker is James Grime.

Bits and Pieces: Secrets of a Digital World

Every message we send on the internet is transmitted in code. Like a kind of Morse code, these invisible messages surround us. But with so many message being sent simultaneously, we need maths to transmit those messages reliably and without mistakes.

The solutions to these problems have some unlikely origins, including one Golden Age Hollywood actress and a World War II code machine that was even more difficult than the famous Enigma. Yet these ideas are used today to transmit messages from space or to play a CD even when scratched.

Join mathematician James Grime as we take a look at the hidden maths behind the digital world, from WWII to WiFi.

Dr James Grime is a mathematician and public speaker. James travels the world giving public talks on the history and mathematics of codes and code breaking. James is also a presenter of the YouTube channel numberphile.

Following on from our guest speaker talk, we will have a brief career and maths post-16 overview, highlighting the opportunities that maths and STEM subject study can provide for students. After that, students will have an opportunity to hear from young people in the STEM industry.

Who will benefit from attending?

The event is aimed at year 10 students who would benefit from studying level 3 mathematics after GCSE, though you may want to consider other students within your school or college. It will inform students about their options for studying mathematics after GCSE.

Other information

The capacity of the theatre is 300 but we would like to limit the number of students to a maximum of 260, allowing attendance from about 15 schools bringing 17 students each. It may be possible to increase this allocation and we will make a decision on this mid November depending on applications. Students are advised to bring a bottled water, as no food or drink is allowed in the lecture theatre. There will be an opportunity for a short toilet break but no refreshments break is planned. Therefore we are expecting students to have had lunch before arrival.

Students must be accompanied by a teacher from their school who will remain responsible for them at all times.

The event starts at 12:45 so we would advise arriving for 12:15-12:30 so we can get everyone seated as quickly as possible and allow for toilet visits.

Please could you e-mail [email protected] if you need parking for a minibus. It would also be useful to know if you don't need parking to save us chasing you up.

Please note the venue is

Stephenson Building,

Stephenson St,

Tees Valley,

Middlesbrough

Teesside

TS1 3BA

Eligibility

Study schedule

A draft agenda is as follows

12:45 Welcome and Housekeeping

12:50 Talk by James Grime

1:50 10 min toilet break

2:00 1st speaker from industry

2:20 2nd Speaker from industry

2:40 3rd speaker from industry

3:00 Maths magic

3:10 Thank you and departure

Key facts

• Reference:#13247
• Audience:Students
• Target year:Year 10
• Curriculum focus:11-16 Maths
• Mathematical focus:Maths in other subjects
• Event format:Face-to-face
• Duration:2.5
• Region:North East
• Fee:This event is free.
• TSMA subsidy:Up to £100 travel bursary is available to attend an AMSP enrichment event for groups of students aged 11-16 at a university or other multi-school event.