Stages Hippocampe

Workshops on mathematics research for high school students

What is an Hippocampe workshop?

The stage Hippocampe born in 2005 in Marseille the IREM (Institute de Recherche en Enseignement des Mathématiques) in collaboration with the faculty of sciences of Luminy (Aix-Marseille Université) and the current I2M (Institute de Mathématiques de Marseille).
The goal of Hippocampe workshops is to avoid the disaffection of the high school students towards the sciences and, more generally, the popularization of the scientific culture. The students can experiment in first person the work of the researcher in an workshop of three days, empirically building their knowledge on math topics proposed, to acquire them and transmit.
The first Hippocampe stages in Italy took place in 2016 the at the  mathematics department of the Roma Tre University as a PLS project of the department, from the 2017-2018 school year the laboratories are part of the offer of alternanza scuola-lavoro of the Roma Tre University.

Short description

During each workshop, the department receives a high school class (20-30 students) for three consecutive days to initiate students to mathematics research. The supervisors present some simple research questions, and students are guided to elaborate their answers working in small groups under the guidance of a small team of supervisors. The last day the students produce and present scientific posters containing their results to professors, students and researchers of the hosting department.

A group of students presenting their results to the other groups

Goals

Students participating in a stage Hippocampe experience for the first time a different method for the study of mathematics. They become part of the process of knowledge production, producing the formalism needed to express both the problem and its solution. Furthermore, the process of understanding the arguments advances together with the research. This makes the student feel the results as their own discovery instead of a solution to accept without critical spirit.

Each workshop has the goal to develop the following skills of the students:

  • Initiate an independent scientific research;
  • Develop new methods of study in order to understand new notions;
  • Have a critical approach to their own results;
  • Learn how to communicate, in written and oral form, a technical problem and its possible solutions.

Stages:

    The IREM experience in Marseille

    Initially born as a project within the Department of Biology, the first Hippocampe mathematics workshop took place at the IREM in Aix-Marseille in 2005, with an ever-increasing number of workshops every year.
    The main partners of the laboratory Pythéas are the Rectorate and the Faculty of Sciences of Aix-Marseille Université, the Institut de Mathématiques de Marseille (I2M), providing the supervisors of the workshops, and the CIRM (Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques) that occasionally hosts the poster presentation sessions during conferences involving external researchers from other universities, allowing students to interact with foreign professors and researchers.
    Since 2006, some workshops have also been offered to primary schools and the École de la Deuxième Chance de Marseille (a school intended for the recovery of young people between 18 and 25 years old who are out of the educational system without a diploma or qualification).
    From the IREM experience in Marseille, the model of stage Hippocampe has spread to France and, to date, stages are also organized by the IREM of Brest (since 2007), Lyon (since 2009), Toulouse, and Nice (since 2011).
    In 2016, for the first time in Italy (and outside of France), two stages Hippocampe were held at the Roma Tre University.

    Two students explain their research to Prof. Bessi

    How a stage Hippocampe takes place

    Each stage is followed by a team of supervisors consisting of one responsible (generally a teacher, a researcher or a doctoral student) who will propose the subject of the workshop to others supervisors (which may include students form teaching masters). The workshop is scheduled in three days (morning and afternoon) according to the following model:

    • First day: students are welcomed at the laboratory (at the university) together with a briefing on the university studies. Then, the schedule of the workshop is presented together with the research themes. During this presentation some basic definitions and questions are given in order to provide ideas and tools to start their researches. Once you have chosen which theme develop, students are divided into groups of 4-6 students and the day is dedicate to research.
    • Second day: after another morning of research, in the afternoon each group prepares a short 10 minute talk to present their results to the colleagues. Then each group start to correct any problems occurred during the exposure (communication or conceptual ones) and elaborate any emerged observation.
    • Third day: the morning is destined to the preparation of the posters and their presentation. At the end of the morning researchers, professors and students of the department partecipate to this presentation interacting with students.

    Educational path

    The supervisor acts as a research guide throughout the stage by suggesting directions for the groups to explore and testing the real understanding and consistency of their discoveries. The role of the supervisor is also to verify and stimulate students' hypotheses by proposing questions that help them understand the topic, correct methodological errors, or avoid students straying too far from the chosen topic. The workshop does not involve any form of frontal teaching and the role of the supervisor is to stimulate the students without forcing them to follow established reasoning, allowing them complete freedom even to make mistakes: understanding the cause of the error and its correction is part of the learning process. At the end of the workshop, students develop their method of understanding, which can be applied to the study of mathematics and, more in general, to STEM.