Engineering Professors’ Council
Mathematics Task Group Report – July 2008
Background
The Maths Task Group (MTG) is a subset of the EPC Maths Working Group (MWG) and was established to redress the need for additional maths to be available for those students studying the Level 3 Advanced Engineering Diploma and who wish to progress into higher education and particularly engineering degree courses. The MWG membership has been augmented by representatives of the RAEng, MEI, EDDP and QCA for this purpose.
Recent Progress
The MTG has met six times during the spring and early summer of 2008. Most of these meetings have included representatives of three of the Awarding Bodies (ABC, Edexcel and OCR) with a view to one or more of them mounting the proposed Maths for Engineering unit. The active QCA membership of the MTG has proved invaluable in expediting discussion, thus ensuring that the module is available to be offered to the first cohort of students commencing in September 2008.
Eventually OCR submitted a scheme very closely based on the EPC proposals, and this was formally accredited (with conditions) by the QCA late in June. This optional ‘Additional Specialist Learning’ unit will now be included in the next Diploma Catalogue to be published shortly. This represents a major milestone in achieving our objective.
Pilot Trial of sample exam questions
A pilot trial was held using foundation year students on 20th June and proved to be most successful, the students finding the sample questions in Part 1 broadly similar to ‘A’ level. However, the more ‘open ended’ Part 2 (where students have to decide how to model a real system rather than being given the relevant equation) caused them some difficulty despite pre-release material being available. Nevertheless, the students readily appreciated that such questions represented real engineering applications.
Exemplars
Work continues to develop the exemplars which are being produced in conjunction with industrial companies (e.g. JCB, Rolls Royce, Thales, and NPower) to illustrate realistic applications of each topic within the Maths for Engineering unit. The DCSF is funding this aspect of the work. The first two exemplars are nearly complete and will be used to attract further industrial companies to participate in the project.
Wall charts will be produced to enhance the student exemplar material, and extended versions of the exemplars are being produced to support the teachers in the schools as the shortage of qualified maths teachers is one concern still hanging over the launch of the Diploma.
FJM 2.7.08.