Posted 8th May 2012

We are pleased to announce that statstutor is now live and can be found at: www.statstutor.ac.uk

This is a new online resource aimed at providing post-16 Statistics help free of charge. The main aim of statstutor is to complement the existing mathematics support provided by mathcentre and indeed both sites are organised in a very similar way.

statstutor has been developed as a pilot project by staff from Loughborough and Coventry Universities with support from the sigma network, along with contributions from the Royal Statistical Society's Centre for Statistical Education and a number of other colleagues from other HE institutions in the UK.

If you would like to be kept informed of the latest developments with statstutor, or would like to make comments about the site or the resources listed there, do please go to the “Contact us” section on the site or simply go to http://www.statstutor.ac.uk/contact/

Posted 30th April 2012

The Maths EG teacher's interface is available at: http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk:8081/mathsegteacher/

This is for teachers and lecturers, not for students. Teachers need to sign up and login to the system, after which they may use it to compose their own tests by selecting (specifically or randomly) questions from the entire database of questions. We hope that this is as easy as shopping on Amazon, but we have included a set of instructions linked from the title page. Please make frequent use of this - it will give your students access to about 2000 questions that have (mostly) been tested over several years. Our experience has been that students learn a great deal and we have hard evidence to back that up!

Further developments will take place over the next few months, so please email your feedback using the link on the Maths EG title page.

Posted 7th February 2012

A new sigma guide Gathering student feedback on mathematics and statistics support provision - a guide for those running mathematics support centres - has been written for those who are responsible for managing mathematics support centres. It is the culmination of a project involving staff from many support centres around the UK. Authored by Dr David Green, Mathematics Education Centre, Loughborough University, it contains a wealth of advice and information for those who want to gather student feedback, and contains examples of forms which are currently being used. Access the guide here

Posted 3rd November 2011

A new Sigma guide Tutoring in a Mathematics Support Centre - A Guide for Postgraduate Tutors has been written for postgraduate students who are working in, or who want to work in, mathematics support centres. It distils the wisdom of seven people, who have many years of experience in mathematics education and in the work of support centres, into a practical resource for postgraduate students. In addition, it contains activities which can be used during training sessions to simulate working in a mathematics support centre. Access the guide here

Posted 2nd November 2011

Maths EG is a free-to-use collection of almost 2000 mathematics questions spanning topics from GCSE to undergraduate level 2.  There are thousands of realisations of each question allowing for virtually unlimited practice.  Random parameters are incorporated into all aspects of the questions, including equations and diagrams, and in the very complete feedback screens.  Statistics questions will follow shortly.  Maths EG has been made available to mathcentre by Martin Greenhow and Abdulrahman Kamavi from Brunel University.  

The questions have been extensively trialled at Brunel University with students from departments as diverse as economics, sports sciences and health studies, as well as engineering, mathematics and computing.  The experience at Brunel has been that students use the Maths EG feedback as a learning resource in its own right.  It was therefore decided to offer this formative assessment resource more widely and via a new and fully-searchable interface that will work on all browsers.  It is hoped that mobile devices will be accommodated later. A (free) teacher interface is being implemented whereby registered teachers/lecturers can set up their own tests by the selecting the questions they want. This will available from mathcentre in due course.

To access Maths EG, click here

Posted 15th March 2011

The award winning mathscard® containing really useful formulae for A-level maths and revision has been released as a free mobile phone app working on over 150 devices. Find out more....

mathscard® covers both A2 and A-level topics.   Find out more....

Posted 25th January 2011

We are carrying out some research into mathcentre.  We are interested in who uses mathcentre and whether there are any resources that you need that are missing or you cannot find.  We would be very grateful if you would complete a very short survey.  It contains only 7 questions and should take no more than two minutes.

Click here to take the mathcentre survey

Posted 24th January 2011

All seven Facts & Formulae leaflets have been reformatted so that they are in the correct orientation for use onscreen.

The leaflets, which contain  useful subject related facts and mathematics formulae, are produced by mathcentre in conjunction with the Higher Education Academy Maths, Stats & OR Network, the UK Physical Sciences Centre, and sigma.  

Posted 16th December 2010

mathcentre contains a vast amount of material to enable understanding to be checked through doing examples.  This could be particularly useful during preparation for examinations.  The following resources contain questions with solutions:

• Practise and Revision booklets contain a huge number of questions to practise algebra, differentiation, calculus and numeracy skills.  Answers are provided.  There is also an interactive version of the Algebra booklet with dynamic links to other mathcentre resources for revision.
• Teach Yourself booklets cover topics in depth and are interspersed with short exercises with answers.
• 12 Teach Yourself booklets for differentiation and integration have been linked to the STACK[1] system which enables students to practice on-line appropriate randomly generated questions with worked solutions.  Repeated attempts are allowed.
• On-line Test Yourself Exercises for a variety of topics allow students to practice examples and obtain solutions.  On-line Test Yourself Diagnostics on the same topics do not provide answers but allow you to determine your competency in a topic through short tests.
• Quick Reference leaflets are easily accessible double-sided leaflets on specific topics and contain short exercises with solutions.

[1] STACK - System for Teaching and Assessment using a Computer Algebra Kernel system developed by Dr Chris Sangwin at the University of Birmingham

Posted 11th November 2010

A new Facts & Formulae leaflet is available - Mathematics for Chemistry Facts & Formulae.  UK University academic and support staff can obtain copies by emailing  info@mathstore.ac.uk.  An electronic version may be downloaded here.  There are now seven leaflets in the very popular series which is produced by mathcentre in conjunction with the Higher Education Academy Maths, Stats & OR Network, the UK Physical Sciences Centre, and sigma.  Useful subject related facts and mathematics formulae are printed on both sides of a sheet which folds for ease of use. 

Posted 11th November 2010

sigma is planning a workshop on 28 - 30 June 2011 for the development of mathematics support resources.  Delegates will be able to create resources in a number of formats and technical support will be available.  The intention is that resources will be made available to the mathematics community through the mathcentre Community Project.  More

Posted 21st October 2010

mathcentre (www.mathcentre.ac.uk) is hosted by Loughborough University.  A mirror site has now been installed at Coventry University.  If you experience technical problems and are unable to access www.mathcentre.ac.uk, you may access the mirror site directly http://sigma.coventry.ac.uk.

Posted 28th September 2010

The popular mathtutor extension videos are now available on mathcentre.  These show examples of mathematics being applied in everyday life and how mathematical modelling may be used to predict events.

A separate resource category called Motivating Mathematics has been created. Select  Motivating Mathematics - Topics to see the topics that are covered. 

Posted 23rd April 2010

A feature of the upgraded mathcentre site is the availability of on-line computer generated exercises covering topics in differentiation and integration.

These make use of the STACK (System for Teaching and Assessment using a Computer Algebra Kernel) system developed by Dr Chris Sangwin at the University of Birmingham. With funding from the FETLAR project we have added links to many of the Teach Yourself booklets so that students can find many additional practice questions. These are generated randomly. Students then work out and input their answers. Student answers are then  validated to ensure that the computer system understands correctly the student's intention, before the attempt is marked. Full worked solutions are available. Repeated attempts are possible. Similar questions can be attempted for further practice.

To find STACK exercises look for those Teach Yourself booklets on Differentiation and Integration entitled "with STACK", or use the search facility, and search for "STACK". 

Posted 6th April 2010

The popular site for mathematics resources, mathcentre (www.mathcentre.ac.uk) has been upgraded with funding from JISC. 

Search facilities have been enhanced to make it easier for you to find the resources you need.  Video tutorials, diagnostics and exercises have been reversioned addressing the technical problems that some users were encountering. New resources have been added. 

We hope you enjoy using the new mathcentre.  Let us know what you think.

Posted 5th April 2010

We are delighted to announce the mathcentre Community Project which has been developed to enable users to contribute resources they have developed to mathcentre as 2-page teach-yourself Quick Reference leaflets.

Resources may be submitted on Microsoft Word or LaTeX templates and must be reviewed to ensure correctness.  To download blank templates and for more information on this exciting development, see Communities.

Posted 22nd March 2010

mathtutor has been upgraded with support from JISC.

Bridging the gap from school to university study, mathtutor uses video tutorials and accompanying summary texts to cover more than eighty mathematics topics arranged in seven subject areas.  Work through the materials at your own pace. Practice using the excercises and test your knowledge with the diagnostics.