TEACHER'S GUIDE

Popularization presentations

Lenka Skanderová and Ivan Zelinka

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VSB – Technical university of Ostrava, Ostrava
70800, Czech Republic

lenka.skanderova@vsb.cz, ivan.zelinka@vsb.cz

Introduction

The popularization lectures which have been created within the STEM4youth project aim at
demonstrating to students of the secondary school how mathematics can be used in many areas of
human life. The presentation deals with attractive topics such as the theory of catastrophes, chaos,
fractal geometry, artificial intelligence, large data processing, etc. These topics have been chosen to
show students a connection between seemingly unrelated human activities.

Technical vs. Natural and Humanitarian Subjects

During the lectures, a questionnaire survey was carried out, attended by 55 students. One question
was focused on the student's future profession. The number of students who wrote that they would
like to study the technical subject was smaller than 10. The most frequent answers to the choice of the
future profession included areas such as medicine, law, veterinary, psychology, sociology, philosophy,
etc.

Another issue was the popularity of so-called STEM subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry,
biology and technical subjects. Although most of the answers did not relate to a particular subject, the
answers that the subject mentioned criticized mathematics as a subject that is not fun. Students often
do not understand why they are required to learn some issues. They do not know where to use the
knowledge and why such knowledge is important for them. After lectures with topics such as Disaster
Theory, Chaos or Artificial Intelligence, the students mentioned in the questionnaires that they did not
realize that mathematics can influence the human life in such a way and that the human life can often
depend on the mathematics.

In this paper, we have tried to provide instructions for the teachers of the secondary schools -- how to
use the popularization presentations. We would like to presentation become a welcomed
THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577
diversification of the lessons of mathematics. The document is logically divided into sections according
to the topics of the presentations.

Big Data Processing Using Evolutionary Algorithms

The presentation deals with processing of the big data using evolutionary algorithms. To process the
big data the commonly using means cannot be used because of the large size of the data. Evolutionary
algorithms are algorithms that have been developed especially for optimization. Their principle is
based on natural laws. Evolutionary algorithms are inspired by nature.

The presentation describes some of the most famous evolutionary algorithms. The origins in nature,
as well as their simple mathematical principles, are emphasized. The goal of the presentation is to
demonstrate that algorithms that use basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction,
and multiplication can be a powerful tool for processing big data which cannot be processed using the
conventional mathematical procedures.

The lecture should be divided into two parts. In the first part, students should be introduced to the
issue: why large data cannot be processed by commonly available means. What are evolutionary
algorithms and why should we use them? The second part should be oriented to the practical use of
algorithms: astroinformatics, prevention of money laundering, optimization, plasma reactor
management, etc. If the teacher cannot or do not want to study the above-mentioned topics, the
practical use can be limited to some simpler examples, such as finding the shortest path in the graph
(see Figure 1), search for the global optimum of a complex function etc.

THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577
 Obrázek 1 Ant colony optimization and the shortest path in a graph

Several applications that students can use to better understand the function of each algorithm have
been developed within the project, for example, an application demonstrating the function of the Hill
climbing algorithm was created, see Figure 2.

Obrázek 2 Hill climbing algorithm used to search for the global optimum of a function

Catastrophes and its Mathematical Background

THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577
This presentation has been the most appreciated by the students of a secondary school. It focuses on
the consequences of mathematical mistakes that can cause disasters, such as the aircraft crash, large-
scale blackout, rocket explosion, fall of the bridge, etc. The first part of the presentation focuses on
enumerating some of the most famous disasters and tries to explain why they have occurred. It shows,
for example, how the wrong rounding of the decimal number can lead to many human tragedies. There
are many pictures and videos in the presentation, or there are some interesting links that teachers can
use. The second part of the presentation focuses on the mathematical background of disasters. The
theory of chaos and its main leaders are mentioned. The last part of the presentation shows the
possible impacts of modern technologies on the future of mankind. The lecture can be conducted as a
stand-alone one within a math lesson, or it can be divided into several smaller lectures, for example,
at the end of the mathematical lesson.

Fractal Geometry

To show that mathematics is all around us, we have included Fractal Geometry among the lectures.
The presentation focuses on some of the most famous fractals and algorithms generating fractals. The
fractals can be divided into self-similar and self-affine. We can say that the self-affine fractals are all
around us - trees, plants, clouds, earth's surface, human blood vessels (see Figure 3). The self-similar
fractals are created artificially and they are usually described by very simple rules or, with simple
mathematical formulas (see Mandelbrot set and Figure 4). Fractal geometry has become, over the
years, not only a tool of art and entertainment, but its properties can be used in science too.

Obrázek 3 Self-affine fractals in nature

THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577
 Obrázek 4 Mandelbrot set and its principle

Examples, where fractal geometry can be used, are described in the presentation. This presentation
can be included, for example, in the computer science lesson. In the presentation, the IFS system using
affine transformations is well described, for this reason, the presentation can be also used in the art
education.

Limes Computibilitatis

The lecture is focused on a variety of limitations in the computations of complex mathematical

problems. First of all, the degree of complexity of the specific problems is discussed. This lecture is
more specialized than the previous presentation. It explains the computational limits on the problems
that students of the secondary schools are unlikely to know. These problems, however, are commonly
very well-known and teachers should not have the trouble to teach them. The presentation can be
used in mathematics or physics lessons.

Cryptology

In the first part, the presentation deals with the explanation of basic concepts such as cryptology,
cryptography, cryptanalysis etc. It also mentions some types of encryption used in history, Ceasar
cipher or ATBASH cipher. The presentation also describes the difficulty of deciphering such ciphers,
their advantages, and disadvantages. In addition, it discusses the principles of some encryption
algorithms, see Figures 5 and 6.

THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577
 Obrázek 5 Polygraphical substitution – Bifid

Obrázek 6 Polygraphical substitution – Trifid

The last but no less interesting part of the presentation is an example of a not deciphered manuscript,
the so-called Vojnic's manuscript. Its exploration is being attempted by scientists from all over the
world. The presentation contains a summary of the previously known information about this
manuscript and a picture of some pages, see Figure 7.

THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577
 Obrázek 7 Vojnic's manuscript

This presentation is more time-consuming for the teacher because it is necessary to study the materials
about the cryptology, ciphers, and Vojnic manuscript.

Statistics

Statistics is not usually taught in the lessons of mathematics in the secondary schools in the Czech
Republic. It is possible to include this presentation in one of the mathematical seminars or to use it as
a lecture for students who are interested in this issue. The lecture deals with topics such as exploration
and testing of hypothesis. It is oriented rather practically and contains some examples.

Conclusion

All presentations are designed to contain as little as possible mathematical equations and formulas
and as many practical examples as possible to use mathematics in practice. As already mentioned,
presentations can be used in math, physics or computer science. Some presentations contain links to
interesting videos. The basic prerequisite for the teaching of these teaching materials is the willingness
of the teacher and the interest of the students. We believe we've provided enough images, supporting
links, and videos. In addition, several applications have been developed for this lectures. These
applications can be downloaded by students as well as teachers.

THIS PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO. 710577