Mathematics and Statistics around the OU
- Platform
- Your subject
- Mathematics and Statistics - OU Community Online
Mathematics and Statistics - OU Community Online
Discussions, news, links, and other useful content and opportunities to share with a Maths, Mathematics Education and Statistics theme
The new look OU website - not user friendly
It's been a while since I did any OU courses, but have decided to do some maths and statistics - but I'm finding that getting the information in the new look website extremely frustrating. I really don't find the new website user friendly at all! Is there anyone else who feels like this? I did eventually get most of what I was looking for in the prospectus - which I eventually found . . .
I much preferred it when the course descriptions also indicated which qualifications it could count towards - and the qualifaction descriptions listed the courses required - and the prices were indicated. Not having all relevant course or qualifiaction data available on the webpage does not make a lot of sense to me.
I also can't find if the maths course I did in 2005 (MU120) is valid for any of the qualifications I hope to do - any ideas on where I can find this info?
Anne
It's been a while since I did any OU courses, but have decided to do some maths and statistics - but I'm finding that getting the information in the new look website extremely frustrating. I really don't find the new website user friendly at all! Is there anyone else who feels like this? I did eventually get most of what I was looking for in the prospectus - which ...
Y182 Starting with Maths
Just wondered if anyone is beginning the course next month? This will be my first OU module then I am hopefully going on to complete the Diploma in Mathematics Education. Will need all the support I can get :)
Just wondered if anyone is beginning the course next month? This will be my first OU module then I am hopefully going on to complete the Diploma in Mathematics Education. Will need all the support I can get :)
Second edition of a mathematical best-seller "Geometry"
Cambridge University Press and The Open University have just published a second edition of a book 'Geometry' by David Brannan, Matthew Esplen and Jeremy Gray of the Mathematics and Statistics Department. 
Their first edition captured a gap in the literature, and was adopted by universities world-wide as a course text.
The richly illustrated textbook captures the excitement and beauty of geometry, in a unified way following the so-called 'Erlangen' approach of Felix Klein (1849-1925) in which a geometry is a space together with a group of transformations on that space. The new edition addresses various geometries, including affine, projective, inversive, hyperbolic and elliptic, and ties them all together with the 'projective hierarchy'.
The new edition is dedicated to Wilson Stothers, a Senior Lecturer at Glasgow University and much-loved OU Associated Lecturer, who died in 2009. Some of the material appeared in M203, Introduction to Pure Mathematics in 1995-2004.
Find out more:
Cambridge University Press and The Open University have just published a second edition of a book 'Geometry' by David Brannan, Matthew Esplen and Jeremy Gray of the Mathematics and Statistics Department. Their first edition captured a gap in the literature, and was adopted by universities world-wide as a course text. The richly illustrated textbook captures the excitement and ...
Updated modules?
So, it's that time of year again when I have to plan out modules for next october. Only it's infinitely more important this year, as the new rulings make it look like one mis-step with the timing of a module and you're stuck with the open degree.
I remember there was talk of a lot of changes to the level 3 modules, in particular alternate-year sessions and consolidation into 60-credit modules. I'm anxious about getting saddled with an excluded combination (forcing me to take a non-named degree (worthless for my career plans), but I can't find the documents explaning what's in the works.
Is there a link anywhere?
So, it's that time of year again when I have to plan out modules for next october. Only it's infinitely more important this year, as the new rulings make it look like one mis-step with the timing of a module and you're stuck with the open degree. I remember there was talk of a lot of changes to the level 3 modules, in particular alternate-year sessions and consolidation into 60-credit modules. ...
MU123 - first time OU student
Hi, i'm starting MU123 in february. My first time studying in over 12 years, slightly apprehensive but excited. Just wondered if there was any other "New" students starting the same. Em
Hi, i'm starting MU123 in february. My first time studying in over 12 years, slightly apprehensive but excited. Just wondered if there was any other "New" students starting the same. Em
Lucky, lucky you!
I was going to write about how happy I am that I've finally submitted my 20,000 word philosophy dissertation. But any form of gloating seems out of step with the general mood of Britain and Europe at the moment, even with Christmas just around the corner.
Every day, the papers make another dire prediction of the misery that's on its way. Unbelievably, the Daily Mail was talking with glee the other morning about the coming European war as a result of the Euro's collapse. But the Mail has never shied away from the unbelievable, and doesn't miss an opportunity to wind up its readership, even if there are no actual facts involved. I suspect the journos at the Mail are loving the current situation.
You won the lottery of life!
The chance of your winning the lottery is extremely low, 1 in 13,983,816 to be precise (or 49!/42!7! if you've done an OU maths course). You would consider yourself very fortunate indeed if you won the jackpot, but you have already defeated much longer odds than those. You won the lottery of life.
For the sake of round numbers, let's assume that the average woman is fertile from 19 to 40 and has 2.5 children that make it to sexual maturity. With one egg per month, there is only a 1 in 100 chance that, of those available to a mother, any particular egg will grow up and have children of its own. Let's also assume that the average age to have a child, and therefore the average length of a human generation, is 33 years. It's probably less than that, and certainly used to be a lot less than that, but this number gives us a neat 'n' tidy three generations per century.
We can now go back to any given year and work out the odds of your being here from that date. Let's choose the year 1600. During that time, you have had about 12 ancestors, each with a 1/100 probability of being born, meaning that the chance of your existing since that date is 1 in 10012 or, more simply, 1 in 1024. And if that still doesn't mean much to you, it is quite a lot less likely than winning the lottery three times.
Random mutations...
If I want to calculate the odds of my being here from the year 300 AD - the year of Bruce Forsyth's birth - my expensive scientific calculator gives up. But the odds are something like 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. And that was only 1,700 years ago. Modern humans are believed to have been around for 200,000 years and so your chance of being here since then is 1 in 1006000, which is 1 followed by 12,000 zeros.
The real miracle this Christmas? We're here!
But that is only a tiny fraction of calculation. You also have to consider all the evolution, with its random mutations, that had to occur exactly as it did over billions of years for humankind to come about in the first place, all the tectonic plate movements that isolated some populations and enabled others to be wiped out by predators, the geological makeup of the Earth and its composition as a result of condensing gases from the remnants of the early Solar System, but also the cloud from which the Solar System emerged and the earlier stars that burned their hydrogen and helium to form the heavier elements within that cloud that were eventually necessary for life.
The chance of your being here is so infinitesimally small as to be almost zero, or no chance at all. Feeling lucky? I am.
If times are hard, and this year's Christmas is not going to be as extravagant as usual, it doesn't matter that much. What is a missing present here, or another appearance for last season's party dress there? We can focus on the real miracle this Christmas - that we, and all the people we love, were ever here at all. That's something worth drinking to.
Have a magnificent Christmas and a joyous New Year! (Unless you write for the Daily Mail, in which case you can sod off.)
(1 vote)
I was going to write about how happy I am that I've finally submitted my 20,000 word philosophy dissertation. But any form of gloating seems out of step with the general mood of Britain and Europe at the moment, even with Christmas just around the corner. Every day, the papers make another dire prediction of the misery that's on its way. Unbelievably, the Daily Mail was talking with glee the ...
Where are the subject forums?
Hi,
I am new to OU and studying MST 121 'Using Maths' as a first module. I have worked my way through the revision pack but got stuck on one question which I still don't understand - Exercise 7.3 question c). I haven't studied since I left school eight years ago so may be simple to others but I am stumped:-)
I understand from the messages that there is a MST121 forum that opened on 12th December but I don't have a link. Is this it? Thanks :-)
Dave.
Hi, I am new to OU and studying MST 121 'Using Maths' as a first module. I have worked my way through the revision pack but got stuck on one question which I still don't understand - Exercise 7.3 question c). I haven't studied since I left school eight years ago so may be simple to others but I am stumped:-) I understand from the messages that there is a MST121 forum that ...
The Seven Wonders of the Microbe World
Using expert commentary, animation and stylised visuals, these Seven Wonders of the Microbe World videos provide an engaging introduction to microbiology, by examining the impact microbes have had on humans through a historical perspective, from Egyptian times to the present day.
Find out more
- Seven Wonders of the Microbe World on iTunes
- Seven Wonders of the Microbe World - playlist on YouTube
- OpenLearn
What is a microbe and what have they ever done for us? From Black Death to Cholera, and Syphilis to Typhoid, microbes have been responsible for some of the world’s most devastating diseases. But they have also provided the human race with the technological advances of genetic engineering and nitrogen fixation, the vision of life on Mars, the life-saving properties of ...
Goodbye open2net, hello openlearn
open2.net, formerly the online home of joint Open University and BBC programming, is now closed. 
The good news is that more than ten years of open2.net content has been moved to a new website at open.edu/openlearn, creating one home for all the Open University's free online learning for the public.
The new site continues to support OU-BBC broadcasts, but also gives access to iTunes U podcasts, YouTube videos, free study units taken from OU modules and topical content, arranged under subject areas relating to the OU curriculum.
There's lots to do - you can watch Evan Davis exploring the state of British manufacturing; explore the frozen planet; get to know the science and history of the Olympics or have a look at our study units in LearningSpace.
Any existing links that direct people to open2.net content will automatically send people to the relevant pages on the new site.
You’ll find more information at open.edu/openlearn.
open2.net, formerly the online home of joint Open University and BBC programming, is now closed. The good news is that more than ten years of open2.net content has been moved to a new website at open.edu/openlearn, creating one home for all the Open University's free online learning for the public. The new site continues to support OU-BBC broadcasts, but ...
New associated editor: British journal mathematics and computer science
The open access journal aims to publish original research articles, review articles and short communications, in all areas of mathematics and computer science.
Subject matters cover everything from pure and applied mathematics to artificial Intelligence and human-computer interactions. The journal is a high quality, peer reviewed, open access, international journal.
Find out more:
Doctor Patrick Wong, lecturer in Intelligent Computer Systems, has recently been appointed Associated Editor of the British Journal Mathematics and Computer Science. The open access journal aims to publish original research articles, review articles and short communications, in all areas of mathematics and computer science. Subject matters cover everything from pure ...
Digital evidence: predictions for 2012
As part of an expert blog, OU Visiting Research Fellow, Peter Sommer makes three predictions for 2012 related to issues around digital evidence.
This blog brings together all the responses to the call for predictions of developments in 2012 and beyond, whether affecting IT law, IP, data protection, e-disclosure, law firm technology or any number of vaguely related developments. Read the blog on SCL - The IT Law Community.
As part of an expert blog, OU Visiting Research Fellow, Peter Sommer makes three predictions for 2012 related to issues around digital evidence. This blog brings together all the responses to the call for predictions of developments in 2012 and beyond, whether affecting IT law, IP, data protection, e-disclosure, law firm technology or any number of vaguely related developments. ...
Teenage maths genius worries about OU assignment scores
What is life like for a schoolboy prodigy who is studying for an OU degree in pure maths?
Cameron Thompson is worried about scoring "only" 72 percent in his recent assignment.
Read the interview with Cameron on the BBC website here or watch The Growing Pains of a Teenage Genius on BBC iPlayer (available til Monday 14 November).
(6 votes)
What is life like for a schoolboy prodigy who is studying for an OU degree in pure maths? Cameron Thompson is worried about scoring "only" 72 percent in his recent assignment. Read the interview with Cameron on the BBC website here or watch The Growing Pains of a Teenage Genius on BBC iPlayer (available til Monday 14 November). 3.5 Average: 3.5 (6 votes)
OU develops UK’s new full-text search engine to aid research scholars
The Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) has developed an innovative new search facility called CORE - COnnecting REpositories - to help academics, researchers and students navigate related papers from across UK Open Access repositories.
Current search systems, such as Google Scholar, used to find academic papers can deny users access to the full article, particularly when subscription fees are required and this often proves a frustration for scholars. CORE specialises in searches of the full-text items held on all approved Open Access repositories, ensuring a vastly improved level of accessibility for users. Anyone searching CORE will therefore receive better access to relevant results. In addition, the CORE system stores these downloads, so that papers are still available even if their original repository is offline, thus ensuring a reliable service.
The creation of CORE – symbolised with an eye-catching apple core logo - was funded by JISC and is accessible via an online portal, mobile devices or through repositories and libraries which have integrated CORE with their own search features. Researchers can be confident they are receiving the most relevant recommendations as the system is the first to offer similar articles based on the full text of papers and currently searches 142 British research repositories and libraries.
Senior Research Fellow at the OU, Zdenek Zdrahal, who led the project, said: “The Open University is at the forefront of producing new and innovative advancements in educational resources. CORE is an exciting addition to this history and we believe it will be beneficial to the academic research community and to the OU. There are plans to develop systems further, to aid research.”
CORE is already integrated into The Open University’s research repository, Open Research Online (ORO) which includes more than 18,900 research publications. It is hoped that CORE will be adopted for use in many other universities and academic institutions.
CORE received £40,000 funding from JISC and the project took place over six months finishing in July 2011. Andrew McGregor, JISC programme manager, said: “UK repositories contain a wealth of high quality research papers. This service should help make it easier for researchers to discover and explore this content. CORE is an exciting demonstration of how JISC’s investment in emerging semantic technologies is being harnessed to benefit researchers.”
Visit the CORE website. A 'how to' video will follow shortly - watch this space!
(1 vote)
The Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) has developed an innovative new search facility called CORE - COnnecting REpositories - to help academics, researchers and students navigate related papers from across UK Open Access repositories. Current search systems, such as Google Scholar, used to find academic papers can deny users access to the full article, particularly when ...
Inspirational speakers for schools - for free!
Speakers for Schools are offering state schools the opportunity to access a fantastic network of speakers who are willing to give inspirational talks to young people for free.
These speakers have kindly agreed to give at least one talk per annum in a state school and will address the big subjects: technological, scientific, political, economic, historical, cultural, artistic, ecological and ethical. They are people who will be able to explain the latest developments in areas such as business, cosmology, biology, medicine, linguistics, history, engineering, inter alia.
Speakers include: Honorary graduates Baroness Tessa Blackstone, Sir Peter Bonfield, Sir Christopher Bland, Sir William Castell, Evan Davis, Sir Richard Lambert and Martha Lane Fox. As well as David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Lord Sebastian Coe and other well know faces.
For further information or to apply for a speaker, visit the Speaker4schools website: http://www.speakers4schools.org/
(1 vote)
Speakers for Schools are offering state schools the opportunity to access a fantastic network of speakers who are willing to give inspirational talks to young people for free. These speakers have kindly agreed to give at least one talk per annum in a state school and will address the big subjects: technological, scientific, political, economic, historical, ...
60-Seconds Adventures in Thought - new on ITunes U!
Voiced by comedian David Mitchell, these fast-paced animations explain six famous thought experiments, from the ancient Greeks to Albert Einstein, that have changed the way we see the world.
Subjects as vast as time travel, infinity, quantum mechanics and artificial intelligence, are squeezed into 60-second clips that will tickle your funny bone and blow your mind.
Find out more:
(1 vote)
Can a cat be both alive and dead? Can a computer think? How does a tortoise beat Achilles in a race? To find out watch the brand new OU ITunes U collection entitled ’60-Second Adventures in Thought’. Voiced by comedian David Mitchell, these fast-paced animations explain six famous thought experiments, from the ancient Greeks to Albert Einstein, that ...
Help Finding a Book
I'm starting on my path for my Science degree which will involve a fair bit of Maths. A few years ago the S104 Discovering Science Module recommended a great book for brushing up on Maths skills and explaining an awful lot of what I'd forgotten from back in the day. I can't remembert he book's name and I could reallt do with this or one similar.
Can anybody out there help please
I'm starting on my path for my Science degree which will involve a fair bit of Maths. A few years ago the S104 Discovering Science Module recommended a great book for brushing up on Maths skills and explaining an awful lot of what I'd forgotten from back in the day. I can't remembert he book's name and I could reallt do with this or one similar. Can anybody out there help please
Maths 'compulsory' to the age of 18 demands new report
The report said that the current system was failing young people and argues that radical change is needed to give children the skills needed to succeed in a workplace where numeracy is increasingly important.
Currently almost half of 16-year-olds fail to achieve grade C at GCSE, with just 15% studying maths beyond that level. This compares to a rate of 100% in most industrialised nations.
Ms Vorderman said more than 300,000 16-year-olds each year completed their education without enough understanding of maths to function properly in their work or private lives.
She said 24% of economically active adults were "functionally innumerate", and universities and employers complained that school-leavers did not have necessary maths skills.
To read the full article click here.
(1 vote)
A new report commissioned by the government and written by TV presenter Carol Vorderman says school pupils in England should study maths up to the age of 18. The report said that the current system was failing young people and argues that radical change is needed to give children the skills needed to succeed in a workplace where numeracy is increasingly ...
Level 2 stats modules in one year.
Hi,
I am doing a life science degree. There has been quite a bit of statistics in a lot of the level 3 material and some in level 2. Also it looks like quite a lot of science peer review involves statistics.
I was thinking of doing 2 level 2 statistics modules to get 60 points to finish off my 360 point (Hons) Life Science degree.
I had in mind to do Analysing data (M248) and Practical modern statistics (M249), both in 2012. I got the see the books at a level 3 residential in Nottingham this year. I think I could learn it but I heard some people say that M249 should be done after you do M248. Anyone done them together and found they could get through both? Any advice/comments are welcome.
Best regards,
Ben
Hi, I am doing a life science degree. There has been quite a bit of statistics in a lot of the level 3 material and some in level 2. Also it looks like quite a lot of science peer review involves statistics. I was thinking of doing 2 level 2 statistics modules to get 60 points to finish off my 360 point (Hons) Life Science degree. I had in mind to do Analysing data (M248) and Practical modern ...
Crack The Code with the OU
Uncover the mysterious code that underpins the world in a new three-part BBC TV series co-produced by The Open University, beginning tonight (July 27).
Presented by Professor Marcus Du Sautoy, The Code takes us on a journey revealing the mysterious symbols and bizarre numbers which pop up in the most unlikely places again and again - almost as if they have been placed there as clues.
What do they mean, why are they here and what can we learn from them?
Professor Du Sautoy takes us on an odyssey to some of the most stunning locations on the planet and you can join the treasure hunt by checking out the OpenLearn pages where you will find hints and tips for cracking online codes from OU maths academics as well as a mathematically enhanced version of one of The Code online games.
The Code, BBC2, 9PM, Weds, July 27.
(1 vote)
Uncover the mysterious code that underpins the world in a new three-part BBC TV series co-produced by The Open University, beginning tonight (July 27). Presented by Professor Marcus Du Sautoy, The Code takes us on a journey revealing the mysterious symbols and bizarre numbers which pop up in the most unlikely places again and again - almost as if they have been placed there ...
Maths + residential = friends
I didn't want to go to the maths residential. It was an unwelcome interruption, a distraction away from the bike ride and its lofty mountain roads and pretty, flower-filled alpine villages. Instead I would be going to grisly, drizzly Nottingham. Thanks, OU. But as the course was a requirement of both degrees I'm doing I couldn't escape it. Now it's over I'm so glad it was forced upon me. The residential, that is, not Nottingham.
This might seem irrelevant but bear with me. I've mentioned on here before that I once lived in Austria, in Graz, about a decade ago. Each week, every Thursday evening, a gang of us would descend upon the same gasthof for a stammtisch, basically a regular, night-long, beer-fuelled opportunity to talk utter nonsense. I was surrounded by bright, funny people and we'd sit there every week, all 10 or 15 of us, and we'd laugh ourselves sick. Eventually I moved on and the group slowly disintegrated but a few of them still linger in Graz. When I go back, we can manage an equally worthy subset of the original, which is the reason I had to detour my ride to Graz last month, but I miss the big group and I've never been able to find or recreate a similar one anywhere else. And then I arrived in Nottingham.
The beauty of the residential is that you have an instant in, conversationally speaking, with everyone there, which means starting a chat with someone is easy. You're all in the same boat, working towards some future degree and with a life full of stories attached. It's not difficult to make friends.
That group I had in Austria was recreated for a far too short week in Nottingham. We laughed ourselves silly. I've never bonded so quickly or so profoundly with a group as I did at the residential. Some of the others attendees avoided the social side of things and didn't seem to have so much fun. But if you want it, it's there and the tutors are equally happy to be a part of it. In many cases, they're the ones initiating it.
Oh, I forgot. We also did some maths. That was good too.
Unfortunately, many of the OU's residential courses are being phased out, which is a massive shame. I've been an OU student since 1997 (although that includes an eight year gap) and I was never once able to go to a tutorial. There, at the residential, was the first time I felt like a belonged to a real university and I enjoyed every minute of that belonging. A reunion has been mentioned. I'm looking forward to it already.
Pictured above: Adele, me, Don, Chris, Sonya and Sarah, some of my team mates and their team mates' teammates. If you're wondering why Adele and Sarah have identical silly poses, they're sarcastically emulating my photo on the last blog entry. Thanks for that.
(1 vote)
I didn't want to go to the maths residential. It was an unwelcome interruption, a distraction away from the bike ride and its lofty mountain roads and pretty, flower-filled alpine villages. Instead I would be going to grisly, drizzly Nottingham. Thanks, OU. But as the course was a requirement of both degrees I'm doing I couldn't escape it. Now it's over I'm so glad it was forced upon me. The ...
- Robyn Bateman's blog
- Login or register to post comments
