Catalyst Inc
Facilitator: Diane Morrow

“By broadening horizons and exploring possibility we set young imaginations free and propel their aspirations higher”

Generation Innovation aims to energise the imaginations and aspirations of local young people by increasing their awareness of future careers as innovators. They are central to unlocking our future as a globally renowned knowledge economy. That’s why we put them at the heart of an inspirational network of experienced entrepreneurs, universities and employers.

In a world in which knowledge is a currency, we need to help prepare young people with the necessary 21st Century learning to critically use this knowledge. Problem finding and problem solving are two key skills required by employers in this faced paced technology driven world. Through this workshop Diane led participants through design thinking approaches to problem solving and framed the challenge within the context of the business world.

“…we’re on a mission to build a community of innovators so powerful its people can change the world” – Catalyst Inc

Ipsos MORI
Facilitator: Fiona Rooney

Real World Research – research skills to solve problems in the modern work and how innovation is important – the latest innovations in research.

When a client comes to Ipsos MORI it is because they have a problem that either they think research can solve or research will provide evidence which will assist in solving their problem. To conduct a research project there are many individual problems which need to be solved in order that the research will stand up to scrutiny and ultimately, will measure what it sets out to do. Furthermore, clients bring additional problems to every research project, for example, budget and time constraints.

In this interactive workshop, Fiona examined a real-life client brief and discussed possible target audiences, sampling, questionnaire design, method of data collection, analysis and reporting. The participants also considered the “so what” of the research, what it told them and what the implications were to see if the client’s problem was solved.

MakeMatic and Bank of Ireland UK
Facilitators: Mark Nagurski (MakeMatic)
Treasa Anderson (Bank of Ireland)

STEM subjects provide a natural opportunity to help students develop key 21st century skills across creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking; the kind of problem solving skills that students need. As educators, we can leverage these subject areas to intentionally develop problem solving skills in our students, but first we need to build our own technology and instructional practice skills.

In this workshop, participants explored the link between problem solving, 21st century skills and STEM. Participants discussed instructional design strategies through worked examples and identified opportunities within the Mathematics curriculum to develop new approaches.

Participants were also given access to a range of online professional development resources, courtesy of Bank of Ireland UK, to support their own skills development across technology and instructional practice.

Mathematics Mastery and Hazelwood College
Facilitators: Elizabeth Bridgett (Mathematics Mastery)
Carol O’ Hara and Niamh McMurray (Hazelwood Integrated College)

Hazelwood Integrated College is part of the Mathematics Mastery programme, a professional development partnership whose aim is to enhance all students’ enjoyment, resilience, understanding and attainment in mathematics.

In this workshop, participants were given a short overview of the Mathematics Mastery principles and how problem solving is at the heart of everything Mathematics Mastery do. Participants looked at how the bar model can support students’ approaches to problem solving and provide teachers with a new perspective on a variety of topics. Consideration was given to how the concrete-pictorial-abstract approach can deepen understanding and solve many different problems in many different ways.

Qubizm Ltd.
Facilitator: Franz Schlindwein

Izak9 is a radical and innovative teaching and learning device that provides rich learning opportunities for teachers to deliver the content and skills of the Mathematics curriculum. It was designed for use in KS2 and KS3 classrooms, to help ease pupil transition from primary to secondary school phases and to offer genuine shared learning opportunities in mathematics, to pupils of all abilities and preferred learning styles.

Izak9 is already being used by 40% of schools across Northern Ireland and many hundreds more abroad.

Franz Schlindwein, a former post-primary head of Mathematics, and creator of Izak9, delivered workshops focusing on the curricular aims of problem solving, fluency and reasoning and showcased what Izak9 can offer with regard to: skills development, mindset change and how its use supports the aspirations of the Shared Education and Transition projects in Northern Ireland.

University of Nottingham
Facilitator: Mark Simmons (School of Education)

In this workshop participants had an opportunity to consider some ways of developing their pedagogy for problem solving.

Through engaging with one of CCEA’s Problem Solving tasks, participants examined how the mathematical structure of the problem situation is revealed to our pupils.

Participants addressed the question of how we can help them to expose the structure of the mathematics beneath the problem (‘formulating’ or ‘representing’ the problem).

Participants seen how this can be tackled through:

• Identifying ‘sliders’,
• Considering simplest values
• Experimenting with extremes
• Considering questions which COULD be asked in the context

The classroom culture of ‘context critique’ which may help less privileged pupils to understand the rules of engagement with questions in school mathematics was also considered.