Sparx
Contact: Glenn Woodcock <glenn@sparx.co.uk>
2017 proposal
The client will be Tanya Morton and Will Bolam ((will.bolam@sparx.co.uk).
My idea:
Data Science for Kids
Although public decisions in the UK often depend on statistical analysis, the public are not encouraged to get involved. Future voters could learn to participate in democratic processes involving data that will have personal consequences for them, applying evidence to local policy debates such as speed limits and road design. Your task is to create an easily accessible tool for kids to become democratic data scientists, helping their families analyse public experiments such as Cambridge traffic surveys, going beyond the usual comparison of averages to apply modern data science techniques such as time series, clustering, analysis of variance, linear regression etc.
Original suggestion:
Ready for Secondary Maths?
The government has identified that some students are not secondary ready by the time they leave primary school. Mathematical ability is a key factor in this assessment. Sparx works closely with Year 7 students, some of who have a low level of mathematical skill. Sparx is keen to explore how to support these students in their final year of primary school and better prepare them for entering secondary school.
Low ability students struggle with basic topics such as: number bonds, addition, subtraction and multiplication. Your challenge is to design an engaging and personalised software tool to help teach and re-enforce these skills. The software should include data visualisation capabilities to enable the teacher to assess student progress.
2015 project
Idea 2:
Running a classroom of tablets in a school over their wireless system can be pretty volatile.
In order to teach a dynamic lesson with 30 students using individual iPads, can we create a wireless, router-less system? Can we create a network of tablets without needing a router? How many can we connect at once? What are the distance limitations?
The implications of this for Sparx could be extensive, because if you have a group of cheap mobile devices, but no other infrastructure – as is the case in many developing countries- this solution could be the difference between accessing education and not.
Idea 1:
“You might not know this, but over 40% of 16 year olds fail their GCSE maths, in Britain, each year. KPMG has calculated that this costs the UK, £2.4 billion every year.
Sparx has been working for two years with 15 and 16 year olds to find out how we learn, and how to improve performance. We have been developing a platform which can teach them in the way that they respond to best.
We know that for many of the students we have worked with, they don’t have basic number sense or their times tables locked down as “learnt’ yet. Can you create a game which would appeal to the 11 – 16 year old market, which would teach times tables, whilst helping the teacher to understand what is and isn’t secure in their learning? Can you develop a game that improves their learning and can give feedback to them and the teacher and can extend each student, in a personalised and adaptive way?"
