On 9th January a group of Year 11 and Year 12 girls were invited to attend the Florence Nightingale Day at Lancaster University. Florence Nightingale was a statistician and worked towards making statistics accessible to everyday people by use of infographics. This event aims to promote the participation of women in mathematics and statistics.
The students listened to talks by three female doctors of mathematics throughout the day, each of whom explained the value that mathematics has in their careers. These talks ranged from using maths to solve supply problems – how much food or product should be ordered to satisfy demand, to using graphics to visualise environmental data for use by medical and environmental sectors and finally to concepts surrounding the infinitely large and infinitely small.
The students also took part in a maths quiz, testing their problem solving abilities and team working skills, as they worked with students from other schools to try and beat the other teams.
Miss Farrar said, “They were excellent ambassadors for the school and did themselves proud. The day was a great success and an eye-opening experience for many of the students who now have a better understanding of the wider application and impacts of maths and all its infinite uses. Thank you to Lancaster University for funding this experience.”
