Ioanna Georgiou’s book is a lively journey through history that tells the tales of maths
Cypriot-born Ioanna Georgiou has been teaching mathematics ever since she finished her mathematics degree – and maybe a bit before then! The eternal truth found in mathematics fascinates her, and she has been developing her work around teaching and learning mathematics more widely, including developing resources and being an examiner.
After her first degree, she went on to complete a Masters in Mathematics Education. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and a Chartered Mathematics Teacher.
She subsequently conducted research in Teaching Mathematics through History and Culture and earned an MPhil in Education. Her special interest around the use of history and cultural practices in the mathematics teaching continued and she has been delivering masterclasses and workshops on stories from mathematics for the Royal Institution of Great Britain and also independently.
Ioanna is currently Head of Maths at St James Senior Girls’ School in London.
In her spare time, the 39-year-old volunteers with local organisations to promote maths to primary students through strategy and games.
She believes in using stories to teach the whys of mathematics and her unique approach to delivering maths has been very effective: “Students react well to, for example, learning why we have 360 degrees in a circle and to finding out the history behind the processes.”
Such has been Ioanna’s success that she’s written a book encompassing the main points of her teaching, a fascinating jaunt through the history of maths which emphasises the whys and hows of what kids learn in the classroom.
Entitled Mathematical Adventures!, the book transports its readers from Ancient Egypt to Greece, and onward to India, Arabia and the Europe of the early Renaissance; It’s a beautiful, lively journey through history that puts the mathematics we do at school in context. Elegantly illustrated by Asuka Young and sparingly written, it is suitable for anybody over 10.
Readers – and their parents and teachers – will see the origins of the techniques and tasks that they do as part of the curriculum. What often is presented out of context, suddenly will have context.
Mathematics, like everything else, needs rooting in everyday life, in the excitement of discoveries past, in cultural shifts and past achievements. Taught without that context, there is a danger of the “why-do-we-study-this” question turning students off. Readers of this wonderful book will never be in such danger. Even better, in the later chapters, the book opens readers’ minds to the wider wonderful world of mathematics.
This book aspires to give a glimpse into how things started and evolved, and how mathematics can help us from simple measurements to navigating ourselves using mathematically simplified tube maps.
The stories come up roughly in a chronological order and the accompanying activities (some easier and some more challenging ones) aim to get you engaged with what was happening at a given time. There are answers and explanations about all tasks in the end of the book.
Winner of the Reader’s Choice award at the Chalkdust Book of the Year, Mathematical Adventures! is an excellent resource for those children born asking ‘why?’
Complete with fascinating stories and challenging activities, it engages, explains, and clarifies just why the maths our kids learn in class is so important.
For more information, visit www.tarquingroup.com/mathematical-adventures.html
Mathematical Adventures! is available from Amazon.co.uk, WHSmith, Waterstones and all good book stores.
