This year UMTC (University Mathematics Teaching Conference) was held at Sheffield Hallam University from September 4th till September 7th.
This year’s conference featured two very good plenary speakers. First Dr Simon Singh gave us a unique insight in the making of the Horizon programme “Fermat’s last Theorem”. His personal experiences serve as a nice example of how the “dry” history of a bit of mathematics did become a great story full of passion commitment and twists. The second plenary speaker Prof R. Burn took us through his own personal development which lead to his series of successful books. Some of the other attendants gave a small presentation in two parallel sessions but most of the time was spent in working groups. The working briefs selected for this conference were:
• What use might mathematics education research be to university mathematics teachers?
• Attracting students to mathematics
• Use of the Internet in teaching mathematics (2 groups)
• Supporting the professional development of mathematics lecturers
