Background

The project “MATRIX – Math Trails with an Inclusive Perspective on Students Experiences” aims at an inclusive enrichment of the Mobile Math Trails idea and outdoor mathematics in general. It bases on the digital tool MathCityMap.

The MathCityMap system has two components, a web portal and an app available for smartphones and tablets. In the web portal, users can create tasks and trails which can be public after being reviewed. Moreover, all users can utilize, edit, or combine the tasks of the public trails to create new trails. In January 2023, there were more than 53.000 tasks and 10.700 trails authored by more than 18.000 users in 16 idioms of more than 85 countries. With the MathCityMap app, students can find and explore outdoor trails via codes. When students open a trail, the app guides them, presenting a map with their location, as well as the trail’s tasks. When the students select a task, they must look around for the involved object, obtain the required data and, optionally, ask for some hints. Then they have to present a solution to the selected task, which the system validates by assigning points. Using the web portal interface or app, teachers can follow their students’ progress in real time through the Digital Classroom.

Aim

In former projects, we developed the system MathCityMap (www.mathcitymap.eu) for the target group of researchers (www.momatre.eu) and teachers (www.masce.eu) to research on and organize math trails with students. The system has gained in international popularities since the last years. Still, the teachers that we work with wish for more possibilities: they wish for the inclusion of students with learning problems on the one hand and to integrate their students as task designers for MathCityMap outdoor tasks. Therefore, we plan to further develop and innovate the MathCityMap system on different levels for our new primary target group: the students.

The MATRIX projects aims at:

1. Technical development of inclusive elements in the app and web portal

2. Integration of school students as task authors

3. Dissemination of the project and its new developments

4. Teacher Education on how to teach students to create their own tasks and use MathCityMap in the context of inclusion

To reach the project’s aim, different activities and work packages are planned.

The MathCityMap system already exists world-wide. We therefore aim at a continuation of this international view on for mathematics education. By comparing national curricula and by merging our national-related teaching expertise, we aim at designing an innovative approach of inclusive and digital outdoor learning that meets the requirements of schools, teachers and in particular students all over Europe. Especially the variety of mathematics education in different countries and the variety of expert knowledge among the European partners allows an optimal result in terms of technics, development of materials and dissemination of the project’s results. Our long-term goal is a strong community of mathematics outdoor learning involving students with learning difficulties and students as task creators actively.