The mission of PIMS is to broaden support for the mathematical
sciences in Western Canada in basic research, industrial applications,
education and public awareness. Its Education and Communication Group
(ECG) endeavours to:
In the fall of 1998, I chaired a task-force to draw up a
constitution for this Group and subsequently took part
in the organization of its annual spring conference
"Changing the Culture".
In my new role as its "BC Facilitator" I am trying various ways of breaking down walls between "us" and the public, especially the schools, e.g., by facilitating
the first PIMS Annual Elementary Grades Math
Contest, whose initiator and main organizer is Dr. Cary Chien of David Thompson
Secondary School in Vancouver. Why yet another contest? For my part, I am guessing
that this kind of competitive engagement in mathematical quickies will attract a more
typical crowd of students in Grades 5 to 7 than it does in higher grades. For the
latter we shall have to find more panoramic vistas ...