Mr. Ciar?n Duffy:

I am a big believer in ensuring there is a fun element to it and that there is an opportunity for students to see that maths - I touched on this earlier - is not always about a right answer. If you were to ask students to write a paragraph on history or an English essay, they would not just give up immediately and say that they cannot do it. They would make some attempt at an opening and a middle and maybe write something for a closing remark. Whereas in maths, it seems there is a stumbling block of "I can't see my way through this answer so I am going to give up." There needs to be something done about making maths a little bit more fun as opposed to the teacher saying "These are the questions. This is an example on the board. Do these ten questions now yourself." There is an opportunity to look at some of the more real-world applications of maths and try to embed them in our teaching and learning practices as well so that students could see, as Mr. Convey mentioned, that what they are doing is both mathematics and engineering or mathematics and science at the same time. Instead of having a disconnect and saying that this is science hour or maths hour, it would provide them with a broader spectrum throughout their day.