Cillian makes maths a project this summer

A GORT Community School graduate this week launched a scholarship competition for a course the young entrepreneur has set up to encourage pupils to examine their relationship with maths.
Cillian Fahy came to national prominence in August 2010 when, after receiving straight As in his Leaving Cert, he came up with the ingenious idea of selling his study notes on internet auction site, eBay.
Since last September, the young entrepreneur has been writing a very popular Leaving Cert series in The Irish Times, while also studying English and mathematics at Trinity College Dublin.
In his latest venture, Cillian is holding a series of weekend summer maths courses in Galway, Cork and Dublin aimed at giving Leaving Cert pupils a full overview of the Leaving Cert higher-level maths syllabus.
“I think there is a demand for these courses,” the New Quay man told The Clare Champion. “When I was doing my Leaving Cert, I would have liked something like this. The feedback has been very good so far from pupils but obviously, I am just starting up so we’ll have to see how it goes. There are other educational courses being offered by other people and institutions but not at this time of year and I have tried hard to keep the price down too.”
“The course is designed,” he explained, “to give Leaving Cert pupils a look ahead at their year to come and what they have to do, how to balance their study and how to pace it out. There is an element of commitment to doing those two days during the summer. It makes it slightly more serious,” he added.
Cillian has always enjoyed maths and he now seems to have found a way to turn the subject he loves into a career.
“I suppose I quite like that you get a superficial view of maths at the Junior Cert, a more detailed view at the Leaving Cert and now I am at college level and it is more complicated but it is the same basics occurring again. I love the way you can keep going deeper and deeper into it,” he outlined.
While on holidays from college, Cillian has worked on courses with Engineers Ireland but he admits, “This has taken up a lot of my time this summer. I am just finishing up a course book at the moment, which is up on 250 pages. It is all my own work and that is why it is taking so long.”
As the Leaving Cert maths curriculum changes for pupils beginning the course in September, Cillian is enthusiastic if not excited about Project Maths.
“I learned a lot now by looking at the new syllabus, Project Maths. Not too much has changed but I did a free course for pupils in May and I asked people what they thought of the overall teaching of maths and a lot of the feedback I got was that maths wasn’t relevant to their lives. Project Maths is designed to change that and I don’t think it will change it too much but it is changing the way pupils perceive it. It is similar material to what is on the curriculum now but just a different viewpoint on it and I think that is quite positive. Lots of people didn’t enjoy it because they didn’t find it relevant but this somewhat resolves that,” he explained.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think it will fully address the problems we have in Ireland in terms of our level of maths. Looking at the syllabus, it hasn’t changed too much, it is more the perception of the subject that is changing. That said, it does seem to be encouraging people to give it more of a go. It is easier to get into and I think that will mean more people will attempt higher-level maths in the Leaving Cert and it will push for a higher level of maths overall and that could resolve a lot of our problems in that area,” he speculates.
It is against this background that the former Gort student has decided to run the courses in Galway on August 13 and 14, in Cork on August 20 and 21, and in Dublin on August 27 and 28.
Conscious of the economic climate, Cillian is offering a free place on each of the courses for one student that impresses him with their feelings, positive or negative, on maths.
“As a recent student myself, I understand the costs of education can be quite expensive so I’m happy to make these places available to pupils. With economic prospects as they are, I think it’s important that there are opportunities available there for everyone,” he explains.
To enter the competition, pupils must email Cillian a 500-word personal essay on why they like or dislike maths. According to Cillian, “The essay is designed to get pupils thinking closely about their relationship with maths so far and how it has been taught to them, how they’ve learned, what they’ve had trouble with and so on.”
This taps into one of the key aims of the course; to encourage pupils to examine their relationship with maths and see how they can change it to help their study.
The closing date for entries is August 4 and the winning entries will be announced on Friday, August 5.
Further information about the competition and course can be found at www.cillianfahy.ie/maths-course.