The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences at UBC would like to invite you to attend a special two-day workshop entitled "Numeracy and Beyond." The event will be on July 9 and 10, 2003 in Room 150 of the West Mall Annex building at UBC (1933 West Mall). Participation is free, but if you are interested in attending the full event, we ask you to register at http://www.pims.math.ca/numeracy/ . Attendance at the public presentations in Geography 100 (as mentioned below) does not require registration.
PIMS feels that "numeracy" is an important public issue and we sincerely hope to see some of the UBC community come out and engage in the discussion. The official press release is below and contains more detailed information about the event:
*** THE INNUMERACY SCANDAL --- When it comes to handling numbers, 43% of Canadians are all thumbs, according to a study by the International Adult Literacy Society (IALS). How then can they fully participate in a public debate which increasingly depends on quantitative information? July 9-10, the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences at UBC will host a two-day international conference addressing this problem. It includes two public talks by leading experts.
"The wall of ignorance between those who are quantitatively literate and those who are not can threaten democratic culture," says Dr. Bernard Madison, who has spent years studying the in the United States, and will speak about it on July 9. The good news is that this wall can be broken down, according to Dr. Yoram Sagher, who has sucessfully tried out the famous Singapore curriculum in both the US and Israel, and will report on it on July 10.
It is hard to believe how bad things really are until you look at the details: a Big Mac has 500 calories, 26 grams of fat, with 9 calories per gram -- what percentage of the Big Mac's calories come from this fat (admittedly, the numbers had to be picked out of a simple table)? According the IALS, just 4% of Canadians are equal to this kind of challenge, and they surveyed only with secondary education. In a society which spends billions on schools, this should be a scandal. The only consolation is that many Western countries are in the same situation.
The titles of the public presentations are "Numeracy and Democracy" (Madison) and "Lessons from the Singapore Curriculum" (Sagher). They will take place in Room 100 of the Geography at UBC from 5:15 to 6:15 pm. Each of them will conclude a full day of workshops and with a smaller audience in Room 150 of the West Mall Annex. All interested persons are to attend. For more information, please contact Derek at (604) 822-3922 or visit the web "http://www.pims.math.ca/numeracy/". ***