Inspiring Young Girls to Appreciate Mathematics; Mathematics the tool; Mathematics the indispensible tool for Science and Technology

Activity Report of AWMA’s Workshop that was held on December 6^th and 7^th 2018, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 

Event: AWMA’s 3^rd Workshop

Theme: Inspiring Young Girls to Appreciate Mathematics; Mathematics the tool; Mathematics the indispensible tool for Science and Technology

Date: 2018, 12, 6-7 

Region: East Africa 

Country: Ethiopia

City: Addis Ababa

Venue: Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MINT)

Contact Info: Yirgalem Tsegaye KIfle(PhD)

Department of Mathematics, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

AWMA Vice President for the Eastern Region of Africa

Number of Attendees 91

Women attendees: 65 

A short report on activities about women in mathematics:

As mentioned there were 91 participants out of which 65 were women from all over the country, including those from 11 other African countries. AWMA members, Female mathematicians and Mathematics Educators (both from Universities and High schools) and Senior Women in Science and other guests from relevant institutions. 

As per the theme of the conference, “Inspiring girls to appreciate the field of mathematics; mathematics the indispensible tool in science and technology”, we had invited speakers on topics relating girls and mathematics. One of the invited speaker, Mrs. Asegedech Shawl talked on the topic: Students’ Attitudes towards “Female Mathematics Teachers”; Lessons From my experience. She talked about her own experience when placed to teach mathematics right after her graduation(BSc. In mathematics) at some High school in Eritrea. The participants liked it! 

The other female invited speaker was the former Minister of Education in Ethiopia, and also the first female minister of the country. Dr. Gennet talked on “ Ethiopian Girls’ education on STEM”. She presented kind of how Ethiopian girls’ education progressed from the “No, you are a girl, you can’t take a course in math” kind of approach to “ Let’s inspire girls to the fields of Math and Science”, even if we still need to do a lot. 

Dr. ambassador Gennet shared her accumulated knowledge and experience as she passes from a student in the emperor’s time to a minister of education- ambassador of Ethiopia to India, and now retired but still fighting for girls’ right to math and science education and more. Participants liked that too. 

The “Queen of Mathematics” award was also the nucleus of the program that really was in symphony with the theme of the workshop. Two girls, the best of the best five female grade 12 students and the best of the best five female grade 8 students were awarded the “Queen of Mathematics” prize at the end of the second(last) day of the conference. 

We hope to host the 2019’s “Queen of Mathematics” award and it is going to be from all over the country. This means it requires travel, accommodation and food expenses and of course prizes, which includes: Some cash, books, custom-made sash on which “Queen of Mathematics” is embroidered, and a tiara for each of the two winners. Educational Institutions and organizations working along with them have promised to assist us in continuing our “Queen of Mathematics project”.

The workshop which included women mathematicians from other African countries was unique of its kind and of course it ended up being a headline of news papers in the city, and was also in the news on a number of TV channels. For the first time in the history of Ethiopian education, Ethiopians know the existence of an association called African Women in Mathematics and that it is determined to attract young girls to join the field of mathematics and it was discussed a lot. The idea of “queen of mathematics “award was really smart and attractive. Parents and educators were really happy and hoped to see it continue. 

We were looking forward to having AWMA’s general meeting here in Addis Ababa. The problem was that many couldn’t attend as expected because of financial problems. Unless we solve the funding problems AWMA is facing we can’t go ahead with our plans. For example, the election of new executive members was postponed for the second time now. So, this is an outstanding issue to solve, if we have to go ahead promoting mathematics and female mathematicians in Africa and inspire many more girls to join us. 

We women mathematicians in Ethiopia have also discussed how badly we need to form our “Ethiopian Women in Mathematics”, especially now that we saw how tough it was to organize this workshop; empowerment comes as a result of networking. In fact, it could be one temporary solution to use our small local networks in each country, and technology to unite us and conduct our general assembly somehow virtually when it seems to be impossible to organize it at one location. The possibility of voting using ICT, which was mentioned by Prof. Marie Francoise Ouedraogo, could probably be realized this way; though it requires further deliberations and exhausting other means. 

A short report of academic activities: 

Of course there were a number of presentations in mathematical modeling. 

Schehrazad Selmane

Predictive model application to Scorpion Envenommation, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene. Algeria 

Manalebish Debalike Asfaw 

Modelling Treatment Switching: As drug resistance develops for HIV, patients may switch from one drug cocktail to another. Is there an optimal time to switch treatments? Department of Mathematics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Mary Fomboh-Nforba 

Modelling the Malaria Vector Population Dynamics: A Reproductive Stage-structured Mode, l Yah, University of Buea, P.O.Box 63 Buea, Cameroon

Ibtissam Medarhri

Some Numericals methods in Finance and Environment Mines – Rabat, Morocco

kaouthar Boubekeur

On the use of count regression models for modelling monthly scorpion sting cases, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene. Algeria

Prof. Senelani Hove-Musekwa

Cost-effectiveness analysis of hospitalization and home-based care strategies for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in high prevalence areas

28 ABBOT AVENUE, PADDONHURST, BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE

Safia Manar Elislam Benoumhani

On Permutation Polynomials Over Finite Fields, kaouthar Boubekeur, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene. Algeria

Prof. F. Z. Nouri

Mathematics in Medecine and Pharmacology Laboratoire de Modlisation Mathmatique et Simulation Numrique Universit Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria

Chisara Ogbogbo

A Mathematical model of climate, Department of Mathematics, University of Ghana 

Dr Entisar Alrasheed

Stochastic models in science and technology University of Bahri - College of computer science and mathematics – Sudan Achamyelesh Amare

Analysis of a mathematical model of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia Wollo University, Ethiopia

Future Plan 

We are planning to Continue with the “Queen of Mathematics project-

1. Continue picking the best two girls from the whole country( one from 8^th grade and one from 12^th grade) every year and award them

2. Create interest in those who believe that they are not meant to be mathematicians or to do mathematics at all

   1. By making use of Summer camps to invite some female students from remote areas and help them see various aspects of Mathematics

   2. By paying visits to female students in remote areas and do the same

   3. Introduce little incentives( awards) to be administered by the Educational Bureaus in the vicinity to strengthen competitiveness among girls

   4. To do some researches in cooperation with interested groups, and address issues that impede girls from being attracted to the fields of Mathematics. 

 Educational Institutions and organizations working along with them have promised to assist us in continuing our “Queen of Mathematics project”. So of what remains from CWM’s fund, we will prepare 2019’s “Queen of Mathematics” award and it is going to be from all over the country. This means it requires travel, accommodation and food expenses and of course prizes, which includes: Some cash, books, custom-made sash on which “Queen of Mathematics” is embroidered, and a tiara for each of the two winners. 

Conclusions and recommendations:

Many female educators who never had access either to the news or exposure to such a workshop in mathematics was really inspirational. They saw great African women mathematicians with a lot of self-confidence. On the other hand, most of the lectures were on applications of mathematics; this has given them the opportunity to see where mathematics could be applied to solve real world problems. Moreover, networking is also another advantage of such a workshop. Many young women in mathematics were introduced to lady mathematicians who are experienced in the area, hopefully they will continue to communicate via emails and facebook. 

Sponsors:

• CWM 

• ISP, Sweden

• Ministry of Innovation and Technology 

• LMS-AMMSI CONFERENCE TRAVEL GRANTS