An E-mail From Galileo

In an effort to find more information on Math Fairs we e-mailed the lovely people working at Galileo.org and told them of our project and our search for anything Math Fair-related. Brenda Gladstone MBA, the Chief Operating Officer with the Galileo Educational Network was kind enough to reply to our e-mail with this helpful information:

Galileo developed and continues to provide supports to teachers and school for Math Fairs in order to:
* engage students in worthy, robust mathematical problems and puzzles
* increase teachers' mathematical knowledge, understanding and literacy
* develop a teaching script that is more conducive to learning: developing mathematical literacy, numeracy, mathematical reasoning and mathematical coherence in their students
* create a collaborative network of math teachers, mathematicians and math educators to improve mathematics learning
* create a resource of robust mathematical problems
* collaboratively study teachers' teaching to uncover the mathematics and pedagogy needed for the work of improving mathematics teaching

Originally when we started Math Fairs we obtained the funding support to provide all our Math Fair PD sessions and work day sessions in classes with students at no cost to participating educators or schools. The last few years we have had to charge fee-for-service costs in order to continue to offer the supports. The results of the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies) were fundamental research findings that informed our motivation to use Math Fairs to improve math teaching and learning.