Professor Elith’s expertise in bias correction in species distribution models and point process models for presence鈥恛nly analysis has made her a recognised subject matter expert across land-use and improving biodiversity issues.

Disruptive shifts emanating from globalisation and emergent technologies are forcing a rethink of traditional approaches to teaching and learning and, importantly, PhD supervision in Australia.

A perceived lack of 21st century skills has resulted in reluctance by industry and government to employ PhD graduates. These forces are also flaming a debate in Australia between industry, business and the higher education sector about the work-readiness of graduates. A reconceptualisation of supervision pedagogy is therefore considered critical by those in government and industry.

Generally, the work-readiness debate has focused on undergraduate education; however, it is now broadening to encompass Higher Degree by Research, or HDR, training. In a speech at the 今日吃瓜, or 今日吃瓜, Accelerate Australia Conference in 2013 Australia鈥檚 Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb argued that, for Australia, its universities and industry the work-readiness of HDR graduates is a 鈥榗ritically important鈥� concern.

According to Chubb, through the HDR process graduates develop 鈥榓nalytical, creative, independent and driven personalities鈥�. However, he lamented, industries in Australia do not want to employ them. The 鈥榦ld-style apprenticeship model鈥� of PhD supervision is no longer fit for purpose.

Chubb said time needed to be given to develop additional skills to 鈥榟elp prepare graduates for multiple opportunities鈥�. To address this, Chubb proposed HDR training be restructured to include a wider set of skills.

Why this matters

In Australia, as in other knowledge economies, HDR graduates are now just as likely to take up positions in government, industry and non-government organisations as they are to take up posts in universities. A recent survey suggests around 25 per cent of Australian HDR graduates find work in universities.

Globalisation is changing the face of employment. Industry and business require more graduates with 21st century skills such as sense-making, computational thinking, cognitive load management and social and cross-cultural intelligence and competency.

The authors of the Australian Group of Eight universities discussion paper, The Changing PhD (2013), observe that other desirable skills include: the ability to formulate and solve interdisciplinary problems; sophisticated approaches to research management and understanding of research impact; and the ability to communicate and collaborate within the 鈥楾riple Helix鈥� of university, industry and government in activities that traverse national borders 鈥� all essential in a globalised market place and super complex world.

The same skills are likewise required in the higher education sector with universities subject to the same forces as industry. As universities internationalise, 鈥榯raditional academics鈥� encounter increased mobility and cultural and linguistic diversity for which they are largely unprepared. How this is addressed merits consideration.

In their 2009 paper, Graduate Attribute Development and Employment Outcomes: Tracking PhD graduates, Catherine Manathunga and colleagues reported that many PhD graduates felt their training had not adequately prepared them for postdoctoral employment. One area of dissatisfaction centred on global and intercultural skills. Global connections require a global mindset and intercultural skills; neither is specifically developed in HDR training.

The 2011 Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research report, Research Skills for an Innovative Future, emphasises the importance of these skills in Australia where 鈥渢he 鈥榯yranny of distance鈥� is an ever present reality鈥� as international experience and connections are highly instrumental in developing and preserving professional networks and enhancing the impact of research鈥�.

Addressing the global or intercultural dimensions of HRD training matters because, irrespective of career trajectory, HDR graduates need to engage in 鈥榖order-spanning鈥� collaborations with a diverse range of actors across the globe. In other words, they must be able to ethically engage with, and in, an increasingly interconnected world, without borders encumbering them.

Reconceptualising the supervision

Within the Australian context, where HDR students do not generally undertake coursework, supervisors are particularly well-placed to influence and shape the skills and dispositions of their students.

Manathunga and her colleagues have questioned the efficacy of centrally-administered programmes that exist outside of the supervision process which do not relate to the students鈥� research interests and do not recognise and capitalise on the candidate鈥檚 pre-existing abilities.

They concluded that any central, generic programmes must be supplemented with 鈥榓 more tailored process鈥� 鈥� one that is most effectively developed within the supervisor-student relationship, where opportunities for highly effective, just-in-time, experiential, reflective learning abound.

In our work with internationalisation of the curriculum, or IoC, we have come to understand the importance of engagement in approaches to academic professional practice. Internationalising the curriculum is a transformative process 鈥� for academics, as well as students 鈥� because it calls for a critique of a discipline or field鈥檚 paradigmatic hegemon, traditional practices, one鈥檚 personal or cultural values, behaviours and agency.

This is equally true of HDR supervision practices, which Fazal Rizvi in the Routledge Doctoral Supervisor鈥檚 Companion observes, often fail to harness the potential of mutual learning between students and supervisors from differing cultural backgrounds.

Lessons learned from internationalising the curriculum

It is critically important to intellectually engage supervisors in the processes of reflecting on and changing aspects of their supervision pedagogy.

Supervisors 鈥� like most academics 鈥� are somewhat resistant to changing pedagogical practices such as supervision because of perceived threats to academic values, ways of working, academic freedom, the primacy of disciplinary knowledge and loss of control over one鈥檚 academic practice.

How they enact their role in the training and development of students and construct their pedagogy is further influenced by the centrality of the discipline in shaping the dispositions of both supervisors and candidates and the possibilities and limitations for training offered in differing institutional contexts, as Manathunga and her colleagues noted in their 2009 paper.

In Jillian Hamilton and colleagues鈥� Good Practice Report: Postgraduate research and coursework degrees, funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching, the need for professional development for supervisors, underpinned by pedagogical principles, rather than compliance was reported as critical.

The report suggests using contextually targeted exemplars of good practice as well as discipline-level and informal mechanisms for 鈥渃apacity building at local levels through distributed leadership models that enable dialogue, communities of practice and peer mentoring鈥�.

This mirrors the approach to professional development advanced by Professor Betty Leask in her Australian Learning and Teaching Council Fellowship, Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC) in Action, wherein academics are placed at the centre of a context-sensitive, evidence-based, cyclical, participatory, reflective, ongoing process of continuing professional learning.

To successfully engage academics in challenging propositions such as reconceptualising the pedagogy of supervision, it is vital they are provided with safe, structured spaces for guided reflection on and review of current practices; good facilitation, rather than direction; resources that prompt critical debate; a situated approach to develop communities of practice, together with opportunities to engage in critical inter-disciplinary spaces; active involvement of discipline leaders; and meaningful goals for participating academics.

In this way, they may move closer to addressing the concerns of Chubb and those in government and industry by producing HDR graduates with the broader skills necessary for engagement inand with the world of today and tomorrow.

Craig Whitsed is a senior lecturer at the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Wendy Green is a senior lecturer in learning and teaching at the University of Tasmania.

Australia’s maths achievements have been falling steadily for the past decade, including fewer students taking advanced maths. Great minds are pondering how to reverse this trend.

From the smartphone and credit cards in your pocket to the latest discoveries in the lab, mathematics underpins our society.

The general public’s perception that it’s OK to not like maths is working against us. Countries that are more successful in maths value it more highly as a society. In countries like France and Germany, you would not hear that maths is not a good thing to pursue.

Janine McIntosh, schools manager at the Australia Mathematical Sciences Institute

“It’s built into the fabric of business, commerce, economics, it’s the basis of science and all forms of innovation,” explains Kaye Stacey, Emeritus Professor of Maths Education at the University of Melbourne.

So at this time of rapid technological advance, when research indicates that 75 per cent of the fastest growing occupations require maths and science knowledge, how does Australia’s and Victoria’s school maths report card read?

Even a quick look shows serious cause for concern.

A major international benchmark study (PISA) shows that between 2003 and 2012, Australian 15-year-olds’ mathematical literacy fell in absolute and relative terms. In another international maths survey (TIMSS), Australian students in year 4 in 2011 were outperformed by counterparts in England and the United States whom they were beating not many years ago.

“It’s going backwards,” Chief Scientist Ian Chubb听says of Australia’s school maths performance. “Our performance has declined over the period of those surveys. That’s not a good position for us to be in.”

When compared with students in other states, Victorian students do quite well.听We are among the top performers in NAPLAN, though our 15-year-olds were behind students in the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia in the 2012 PISA survey and a long way short of some international competitors.

Furthermore, students in Victoria have flocked to further maths at VCE in the past 15 years. This, despite its name, is the most basic of the three VCE maths options. The percentage of students taking further maths has risen from 40 per cent of those taking VCE in 2001 to 60 per cent in 2014.

Australia Mathematical Sciences Institute schools manager Janine McIntosh says听the numbers taking intermediate and advanced maths courses听are in serious decline,听by contrast. Yet these subjects are the foundations for science and engineering at university.

Particularly worrying is the rate at which girls are turning their backs on advanced maths. In Victoria, just 5.5 per cent of girls studied specialist maths at VCE in 2014.

So what’s going wrong in Australian and Victorian maths classrooms? Ask around and there are many suggestions for where the problem lies.

Some cite the very high numbers of teachers without a maths background teaching maths in our secondary schools. According to Ms McIntosh, 40 per cent of Australian students from years 7 to 10 are taught maths by a teacher without a maths background.

“Junior secondary is very poorly served,” says Professor Stacey. “You need a thorough understanding of what you are teaching, and pedagogical content knowledge in maths, but a very high number are teaching without having done maths at year 12 themselves.”

But the problem may start earlier still. Many of our primary teachers, who have often struggled with maths themselves at school, have “wobbly foundations” in maths, Ms McIntosh says. “They don’t always have good confidence in their own abilities and that comes across to the children.”

But Peter Sullivan, Professor of Science, Maths and Technology Education at Monash University, doesn’t think teacher qualification is the “critical issue” that some say it is. “If schools were doing collaborative learning and planning, I am not overly concerned by it,” he says. “The real issue is maths is difficult to learn. We have not found the optimal way for students to overcome the hurdles.”

He explains that research shows students like to engage in maths for themselves and be less reliant on the teacher. “Rather than finding the student who needs help and telling them what to do, teachers need to step back and find ways to facilitate conversations between students.” He explains that teachers need professional learning and support to do this.

Others point to the time allocated to maths in a crowded curriculum as an issue, while NAPLAN may also be a problem when it comes to inspiring students in maths. “The test is making it hard for teachers to find time to be engaging,” says Colleen Vale, Associate Professor in Maths Education at Deakin University, who notes that lots of students are getting to junior secondary school, “not fully engaged, challenged or interested in maths”.

She adds that relating maths to the real world and students’ interest takes planning, teamwork and time. “The time to sit down and work it out is probably not sufficient,” she says.

Then there’s the Australian attitude to maths and our low aspirations. “To say you can’t do maths seems acceptable in Australia,” says Ms McIntosh. “You would not say that about reading. The general public’s perception that it’s OK to not like maths is working against us. Countries that are more successful in maths value it more highly as a society. In countries like France and Germany, you would not hear that maths is not a good thing to pursue. People need to change their attitudes to maths.”

So what’s being done?

Maths education is clearly on policymakers’ minds. In October last year, the federal government announced $12 million for initiatives to boost students’ interest and competency in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), including funding for computer coding and maths summer schools. It has also announced that new primary teaching graduates will have a subject specialisation which could include maths.

In May, federal, state and territory ministers –听though rejecting making science or maths compulsory to year 12 – agreed to develop a national STEM school education strategy. Meanwhile, the Chief Scientist recently commissioned research looking at schools across Australia that do significantly well in maths to see what they are doing right. He is also looking overseas at what other countries have been doing.

“We need to pause, reflect, rethink, reposition and introduce programs and processes which will change the culture and get people to understand why maths is important and how it can be interesting,” Professor Chubb says. “It’s not difficult if it’s taught in the right, inspiring way.”

They wrote for children, but they also did science, was the theme for ABC Radio National’s Science Show on Saturday May 9.

今日吃瓜’s Stephanie Pradier joined Robyn Williams and other scientists with her piece that jumped down the rabbit hole听into the sensical nonsense and maths in wonderland.

听

Or read the transcript:

Being read Alice in Wonderland as a child one only thinks of the adventures she has. The white rabbit, the caucus race, treats that make you grow and shrink. I remember Alice meaning a world of mysteries below the ground. I was frightened of the Queen of Hearts and delighted by the game of croquet.

As a young woman with degrees in both physics and philosophy re-reading Alice I have discovered so much more and it means so much more. The play on words; the puns; the homophones; the mathematical inverses; the nonsensical logic, hidden throughout. Alice is just as entertaining in my late twenties as it was in early childhood.

Alice is 150 years old this year, but her adventures in Wonderland read for the first or the hundredth time, seem as young and vibrant as ever.

The majority of people today know Lewis Carroll was but a pseudonym for the mathematician Charles Lutewidge Dogdson. Carroll constructed his pen name through a series of steps. He took the first two parts of his name Charles Lutwidge and translated them into Latin: Carolus Ludovicus. He then reversed the order and loosely translated them back into English. And, he was left with Lewis Carrol.

So how did this meticulous and conservative mathematician write such a fantastical tale?

I actually believe that:

If Carroll was not a mathematician and logician, then the tales would not have been fantastical.

As this is a conditional statement logic tells us its contrapositive must also be true:

The fantasticality of the tales requires that Carroll was both a logician and mathematician.

Carroll is bred from a long line of mathematical clergymen. His father lived at Christ Church College, as did he. He father was a Church of England Cleric, as was he. And his father was an Oxford Don in mathematics, as was he.

One thing Carroll didn鈥檛 do, which his father did, was marry. Carroll lived and died, a bachelor, at Christ Church College.

Throughout his lifetime Carroll printed 256 pieces of writing. Sixteen of these were books: ten devoted to mathematics and logic, six to children.

When reading about Carroll鈥檚 life as a mathematician we find first and foremost, that he was a teacher, a teacher earnestly concerned with methods of instruction.

One of the books he wrote on mathematics was entitled 鈥淧illow Problems.鈥� This work contained 72 mathematics puzzles Carroll worked out in his head when suffering insomnia. It is said that Carroll, a private man, did not wish for anyone to know of his insomnia, so he changed the subtitle of this book from 鈥渢hought-out during sleepless nights,鈥� to 鈥渢hought-out during wakeful hours.鈥� An example of his love of inverses 鈥� to which I will come to shortly.

Carroll wrote of this small book: 鈥淢athematics will not put you to sleep, but it will occupy the mind pleasantly and prevent worry.鈥�

When I stumbled upon this sentiment I instinctively agreed. Doing mathematics and logic problems most certainly occupies my mind. I find it meditative, fun, hard and satisfying.

Before going down the rabbit hole into the logics and inverses of Wonderland, let me first describe one of Carroll鈥檚 more serious questions about our reality. His question was: 鈥淲here does the day begin?鈥� And it goes like this:

If someone is to travel westward around the earth with the same speed as the sun, they will find that though they started on a Tuesday, when they return to their starting point the day is now called Wednesday. So, asks Carroll, when did the day and date change?

Apparently Carroll made many government officials as mad as a hatter asking for an answer to this question, which he first posed in 1860. Of course, not a soul could answer him, not until 24 years later, in 1884, when the arbitrary International Date Line was established.

This shows insightful thinking and playful ideas and asking questions and questioning answerers is an imperative function of understanding the world and the human conditions we impose on it.

Carroll believed, as do I, that children (and I also think adults), would enjoy learning mathematics if they could be enticed by amusing stories and puzzles. Although times have changed and today puzzles can be solved not just pen and paper but also screen, mouse and keys, one thing required to solve puzzles for all time is imagination.

And it was Carroll鈥檚 imagination that brought us Alice.

Re-reading Alice this year I was struck and amazed by Carroll鈥檚 ingenuity.

There are many amusing homophones throughout the text and a great deal of mathematics and logic. I do not nearly have enough time to go through them all, so I have chosen but two of my favourites and a few words to play with.

When the Cheshire cat first appears to Alice, at a fork in the road, she is faced with a dilemma. The Cat tells Alice whichever path she chooses she will encounter mad people.

鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 want to go among mad people,鈥� Alice remarked.

鈥淥h you ca鈥檔鈥檛 help that,鈥� said the Cat: 鈥渨e鈥檙e all mad here. I鈥檓 mad. You鈥檙e mad.鈥�

鈥淗ow do you know I鈥檓 mad?鈥� said Alice.

鈥淵ou must be,鈥� said the Cat, 鈥渙r you wouldn鈥檛 have come here.鈥�

Alice didn鈥檛 think that proved it at all: however, she went on: 鈥淎nd how do you know that you鈥檙e mad?鈥�

And this is my favourite piece of faulty reasoning:

鈥淭o begin with,鈥� said the Cat, 鈥� a dog鈥檚 not mad. You grant that?鈥�

鈥淚 suppose so,鈥� said Alice.

鈥淲ell, then,鈥� the Cat went on, 鈥測ou see, a dog growls when it鈥檚 angry, and wags it鈥檚 tail went it鈥檚 pleased. Now I growl when I am pleased, and wag my tail when I鈥檓 angry. Therefore, I鈥檓 mad.鈥�

What a cunning little logical trick.

Carroll inverts everyday mathematical and scientific concepts. The most famous is the episode where the Red Queen takes Alice by the hand and begins to run. The pair run faster and faster but they remain in the same place. 鈥淚t takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place,鈥� says the Red Queen.

In our world speed is defined as the change in distance over time. In Wonderland and Looking Glass Land, were everything is inverted, it makes perfect sense that speed is the ratio of time to distance. And therefore it is perfectly sound logic that the White Queen screams before she pricks her finger and that the faster you run the shorter the distance you cover.

And then there are all the homophones 鈥� words that sound the same but have different meanings 鈥� and plays on words. But I think it is best for you to see these for yourself.

At first sight Carroll seems an unlikely person to have written these immortal works. But as we delve deeper into his studies and his life, the less extraordinary does the paradox seem.

Nonsense opens our minds to the infinite possibilities of our world, and allows us to think of six impossible things before breakfast.

I believe the human soul needs nonsense, just as it needs art, literature, music, and maths.

And perhaps, if like Carroll, we expose children to the sensical and nonsensical aspects of mathematics they may themselves jump down the rabbit hole.

BHP Billiton has announced a $22 million partnership with the 今日吃瓜 to encourage women and girls to study maths.

BHP鈥檚 support will fund a new program, based at the University of Melbourne and called Choose Maths, which will aim to raise awareness about the opportunities afforded to girls by studying and pursuing a career in mathematics.
The program will include professional development for teachers in 120 schools, a national 鈥榳omen in maths鈥� awareness campaign and financial support and scholarships for women studying maths.

The $22 million will be provided by the BHP Billiton Foundation over five years.

BHP鈥檚 CEO Andrew Mackenzie launched the partnership and the program with 今日吃瓜 Director Geoff Price and Senator Scott Ryan at the University of Melbourne.

Mackenzie said the program aims to change the perception that girls are less suited to maths and other STEM subjects than their male colleagues.

鈥淎ustralian industry knows that STEM professionals are vital to our future prosperity, national productivity andglobal competitiveness. For the resources industry this is especially true,鈥� he said.

鈥淏HP Billiton employs 123,000 people worldwide, many of them STEM professionals, so we share the responsibility to make sure there is a pipeline of young people who choose to study STEM subjects.鈥�

鈥淎ny increase in STEM participation is good news but an increase in female representation is especially valuable because of the undeniable benefits of diversity.鈥�

Mackenzie also said BHP is pleased to be partnering with 今日吃瓜 to develop the program.

鈥溄袢粘怨� is a leader in the field of mathematics and I鈥檓 proud that we鈥檙e partnering in the development of this targeted and holistic program to address the gender dynamic in the teaching and learning of maths.鈥�

今日吃瓜 Director Geoff Price said the move to support girls and women in studying maths is crucial.

“The low participation of girls and women in the study of the mathematical sciences and in the quantitative professions is a significant national social and economic challenge,鈥� he said.

Price also said it is time for women and girls to be able to 鈥渟hare equally in the rewarding careers and rich life experiences that mathematics offers鈥�.

Australia falls behind other developed countries when it comes to girls鈥� education in STEM subjects, and this trend begins as early as high school. Only 7% of Australian girls study maths at an advanced level in their final year of secondary school. The number of female maths graduates at university level are only one third of the OECD鈥檚 average.

In a study conducted in 2006, 46% indicated they expected to pursue a career in STEM fields. The figure for girls? Only 8%.
Women continue to be underrepresented not only in STEM education, but in STEM careers as well.

This underrepresentation is a result of a number of compounding factors discouraging women from studying and pursuing maths and science, among them the perceptions that BHP鈥檚 new program is determined to address. This commitment, as well as a significant level of funding, will hopefully make a difference to many girls who dream of careers in maths and science.

BHP Billiton will spend $22 million on lifting the maths performance of girls in schools and helping them into male-dominated science, technology and engineering careers.

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Tuesday that the money would fund the 今日吃瓜’s Choose Maths project, a five-year program to encourage girls to study maths and statistics.

Launching the Choose Maths program Mr Mackenzie, a geologist and chemist who worked as a research scientist before he entered business, said he benefited from the encouragement others gave him to study maths when he was growing up in the Scottish industrial town of Kirkintilloch鈥�.

“So I am a strong advocate of the opportunities that mathematics offers,” he said.

“We hope the Choose Maths program will help secure the pipeline of highly-qualified, female STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] professionals and open the door to the rewarding careers and cultural pursuits that maths offers,” he said.

Last year 15 per cent of BHP’s senior leaders and 16 per cent of its senior managers were women, figures Mr Mackenzie said had doubled over the past four years.

“This year nearly half of our Australian graduate intake are women,” he said at the launch.

The Choose Maths program will give teachers professional development in maths education, help girls at school become more aware of careers which use maths, offer role-models and networking to young women, and establish the BHP Billiton awards to recognise teachers for their excellence in maths education.

Choose Maths program director Janine McIntosh said teacher professional development would be offered in 120 schools across Australia, concentrated on the ones where teachers lacked maths teaching skills. Ms McIntosh said that many primary school teachers were not confident in maths and 40 per cent of teachers teaching year 7-10 maths classes were not qualified to teach the subject.

“They are great teachers and they are fabulous at what they do but they just don’t have the content knowledge or expertise,” she said.

Australia’s maths education lags other developed countries with the percentage of male maths graduates from university at half the OECD average and, for female graduates, at one-third the OECD average. While 13 per cent of boys take advanced maths in their final year of high school, only seven per cent of girls do so.

“The low participation of girls and women in the study of the mathematical sciences and in the quantitative professions is a significant national social and economic challenge,” 今日吃瓜 director Geoff Prince.

The funding for the Choose Maths program will come from the BHP Billiton Foundation which was set up in 2013 to help the company meet its target of investing 1 per cent of pre-tax profits (over a three year rolling average) in community programs.

Before explorers stumbled across Australia, Europeans thought all swans were white. And the more white swans people saw, the more they believed this was true. It wasn鈥檛 until the late 17th century when Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh sighted a large flock of black swans on what is now the Swan River in Western Australia that this belief was overturned.

Women in mathematics, like black swans, are unexpected on the face of it.

Maths has widely been accepted as a male discipline for the longest time. As a female mathematician I regularly see first-hand the imbalance of numbers in the discipline. Can we then conclude that girls must not like maths as much as boys? Or perhaps that on the whole they are just not as competent at the subject?

It’s not that women don’t like maths or aren’t capable, it’s just that society by design has stopped women going into the discipline and that’s why there are fewer females.

A counter example to a generalisation can have the power to unhinge even the most established of beliefs 鈥� just as Vlamingh鈥檚 black swans did to the white swan theory.

Along with my STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sisters, I am the metaphorical black swan. Centuries ago we were few and far between, today a larger, but still relatively small number of us swim around in the STEM pond.

What I鈥檓 about to share with you is my story and the clues it offers as to why I buck the trend.

A historical perspective

I went out to dinner recently with a group of people after work 鈥� some I knew, others were friends of friends. We were in a pop-up bar in Sydney on a Friday night. The music was loud, the decor was eclectic enough to be deemed trendy and the margaritas were flowing. As we sat on wooden stools and nibbled on our tapas, I started a conversation with one of the girls at the table who I hadn鈥檛 met before. She asked what I did and I told her that I鈥檓 a mathematician. Her reaction was something along the lines of I鈥檓 鈥榯oo pretty鈥� to be a mathematician.

While it鈥檚 a somewhat nice compliment, there鈥檚 something a little irritating about this reaction (a reaction that鈥檚 all too common); especially if you superimpose that comment to another profession such as, say, a doctor or lawyer. This response is the quintessential example of the general perspective of women in maths.

To understand this social attitude toward women and maths we need to travel back in time.

Centuries ago and throughout history women were always actively discouraged from studying maths. It was thought that women who studied any sciences were 鈥榥ot proper鈥�. More than that, it was a common belief that women didn鈥檛 have the brain capacity to think about maths or science.

Not that long ago in the 1950s women were not allowed into the physics buildings at Harvard or Princeton universities. And Harvard鈥檚 physics department did not accept a woman as a faculty member until the 1970s.

Just like in life, if you cast doubt on someone鈥檚 abilities for long enough they start to believe it. It takes a long time for a society to get over that kind of discrimination.

My intellectual sanctuary

Luckily, my experiences learning maths were very positive when I was growing up. Besides having really dedicated, enthusiastic maths teachers, many of my immediate and extended family have studied maths at a tertiary level and now work as engineers, analysts and maths teachers. More than that, many females in my family have strong maths or STEM backgrounds. Throughout the years my interest in the subject was gently fostered by those around me. This has always been my norm.

Maths was introduced to me in a conceptual way. Often my dad and I would simply talk about topics without pen or paper.

I clearly remember the day my dad introduced me to calculus. One summer morning when I was about 14 my dad and I sat down to have a chat under the fig trees in our backyard. He started by saying 鈥極k so you鈥檝e learned to calculate the area of squares, triangles, rectangles and other regular shapes, but how do you think you鈥檇 calculate the area of an irregular shape such as a rectangle-like shape but with one of the sides wiggly?鈥� He got me to think about it. After a while we both agreed that it would be very hard and that would have to approximate it by a rectangle. Then he asked me to think about how to make that approximation more accurate. After some discussion we agreed that instead of using one rectangle, you could use the sum of two smaller rectangles that followed the curve more closely. He led me to make my own conclusion that the smaller the rectangles, the more accurate the calculation of the area would be.

My dad made me feel like I had thought of that idea all on my own. It wasn鈥檛 until six months later, when we learned it formally at school, that I realised that I wasn鈥檛, in fact, the first person to work this out. This was a branch of mathematics called calculus and people have actually been thinking about this concept since 250 BC, particularly some guy called Archimedes who is, as it turned out, considered to be 鈥榦ne of the greatest mathematicians of all time鈥�.

That was the way I was introduced to different maths topics; gently, in narrative form and in a way where I was led to make my own conclusions.

My dad was always encouraging and supportive of my interests. Once when I was in early high school my dad said to me: 鈥淵ou always have to remember, Lily, there鈥檚 no difference in mathematical ability between girls and boys.鈥�

The reason this comment stuck in my memory isn鈥檛 because I found it encouraging or affirming as my dad had meant it to be, no, it stuck in my memory because I remember thinking what an odd statement it was to make. Of course there isn鈥檛 a difference; why would anyone think otherwise?

In a lot of ways, growing up with a family who appreciated the discipline sheltered me from any prejudices against the subject.

A black swan event is one that seems rare on the face of it, but upon closer investigation a conclusion can be made it was not rare all along.

Having a supportive nurturing environment in which to support my interests in maths meant I was given the opportunity to explore and excel in the subject without being constrained by prejudgment.

This should be the case for all girls and women and students in general. Every child starts school with mathematical potential. We, as a society, need to cultivate this potential because there is no telling how high they will fly as a result.

Working from the ground up, Choose Maths begins with a focus on mathematics education in primary and secondary schools. The BHP Billiton Foundation has contributed $22 million toward the partnership, which will enable 今日吃瓜 Schools to expand its outreach capacity across Australia over the next five years.

The program will contribute to the health of the mathematics pipeline in Australia from school through university and out to industry and the workplace by:
— providing mathematics-ready teacher professional development in 120 schools across Australia and resources for every school in the country;
— developing a national mathematical sciences careers awareness campaign;
— establishing an “inspiring women in mathematics network”; and
— holding annual BHP Billiton awards for excellence in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Research-based strategies for encouraging girls and young women into mathematics and STEM-related courses will be core to the program. The large-scale careers awareness campaign will be driven by research into community perceptions about mathematics.

STEM skills are critical for Australia鈥檚 productivity and global competitiveness

Innovation-active businesses are around twice as likely to use engineering and science skills, and three times more likely to use information and communications technology skills than innovation-inactive businesses [1]. It is estimated that 75 per cent of the fastest growing occupations require competency in the STEM disciplines [2]. It is no surprise, therefore, that in a 2013 survey, conducted by the Australian Industry Group, the majority of businesses indicated they had difficulty recruiting employees with these skills [3]. If no action is taken, demand for tertiary graduates with STEM skills, particularly mathematics, will continue to outstrip supply.

Women 鈥� an untapped resource to maximise talent

The percentage of male mathematical sciences graduates in Australia sits at half the OECD average; for women this drops to one-third [4]. Between now and 2020 we need new PhD graduates to grow the expert mathematical and statistical workforce by 17 per cent 鈥� a currently unattainable figure [5].

If Australia increases the participation of girls and young women in STEM we can contribute to addressing the gender wage gap and fill graduate places needed to secure a productive and innovative future. Eliminating the gender wage gap could be worth around $93 billion 鈥� that鈥檚 8.5 per cent of GDP [6].

“The low participation of girls and women in the study of the mathematical sciences and in the quantitative professions is a significant national social and economic challenge.

“This landmark five year project, undertaken by the 今日吃瓜 and funded by the BHP Billiton Foundation, aims to build self-sustaining education communities where girls and young women share equally in the rewarding careers and rich life experiences that mathematics offers,” says 今日吃瓜 Director, Professor Geoff Prince.

— ends —

Media planning to attend the launch are asked to contact Stephanie Pradier at 今日吃瓜 on 0424 568 314 or stephanie@amsi.org.au, to facilitate arrangements and interviews with:

Andrew Mackenzie, CEO BHP Billiton
(Please note: in order to secure an interview please contact Stephanie before 2pm Thursday 23 April.)

Professor Geoff Prince, 今日吃瓜 Director

Janine McIntosh, Choose Maths Program Director
M: 0402 408 507 E: janine@amsi.org.au

The numbers on Australia鈥檚 decline in mathematics:
— In 2010 the Australian Industry Group said more than 75 per cent of employers responding to a survey reported that low levels of literacy and numeracy affected their businesses.
— Forty per cent of Year 7-10 maths classes nationally are taught by teachers who are teaching “out-of-field鈥�. These teachers are qualified teachers, but their undergraduate course was not in mathematics or did not contain sufficient mathematics for them to undertake a method subject in their diploma of education. This figure is roughly three times the international average and twice the estimated rate for Year 7-10 science classes.
— 54 per cent of adult Australians have only basic numeracy skills.
— Research found that almost three quarters (74 per cent) of students who studied two science subjects in their final year of secondary school continued to study science-related areas at university.
— The figure below shows the number of girls and boys participating in advanced mathematics subjects at Year 12 between 2006 and 2013.

Further Resources:

Footnotes:
[1] Australian Government (2012) Australian Innovation System Report 鈥� 2012 DIISRTE, Canberra, p36
[2] Becker K & Park K (2011) Effects of integrative approaches among science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects on students鈥� learning. A preliminary meta-analysis. Journal of STEM Education, 12(5/6), p23.
[3] Australian Industry Group, Lifting our Science, technology, Engineering and Maths Skills, Australian Industry Group, Sydney p.p.3-7.
[4] Education at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators, Table A4.2b (Web only) Distribution of tertiary new entrants, by field of education and gender (2009)
[5] Edwards, D., Radloff, A., and Coates, H. (2009). Supply, Demand and Characteristics of the Higher Degree by Research Population in Australia. Canberra: Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Commonwealth of Australia.
[6] The Impact of a sustained gender wage gap on the Australian Economy, Report to the Office for Women, Department of Families, Community Services, Housing and Indigenous Affairs. Prepared by NATSEM University of Canberra, R. Cassells, Y. Vidyattaman, R. Miranti and J.McNamara. November 2009 p vi

TAMPON maker Libra is being called on to remove and apologise for crass advertising that female scientists and mathematicians have condemned for reinforcing negative stereotypes that women aren鈥檛 good at maths. On public toilet doors at shopping malls women are being greeted by a Libra advertisement with the tagline: 鈥淎bsorbs more than you ever did in maths class鈥�.