Universeum

ALL CHILDREN DESERVE TO BE ABLE TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD WITH A GOOD LEVEL OF SELF-CONFIDENCE AND A GOOD SELF-IMAGE

Universeum describes how it is working to open doors that help people understand things. With its focus on applied mathematics, they hope both to create greater self-confidence among young people and contribute to knowledge that can solve many of society’s sustainability challenges.

“Research shows that the best way to support school students is to support parents and teachers at the same time.”

CEO Carina Halvord and Development Director Björn Edlund, tell us a bit about Universeum and its applied mathematics initiative. How did the idea come about?

Carina: – Sweden is in the middle of the transition to a sustainable society, in line with the UN’s Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Many of the challenges this involves can be solved using mathematics. Mathematics forms the basis of so much, and undoubtedly underlies the innovation and success of Swedish industry.

But now several surveys show that many students enrolled in engineering programmes are unable to cope with their courses. One of the reasons is that their maths skills are not up to the job. It’s a problem that goes back to much earlier – sometimes right back to primary school. The idea for an applied mathematics initiative originated quite simply from a clear needs analysis. Some time ago, we created the ‘Love Chemistry’ initiative for more or less the same reasons. It was based on the fact that nine percent of the country’s 15-year-olds were not getting a pass grade in chemistry at school. Many felt scared or turned off by the very idea of chemistry.

As Sweden’s national science centre and one of the 10 most visited experiences in Sweden, at Universeum we have great opportunities to help resolve such problems. Of the nearly 600,000 people who explore Universeum every year, a full 70,000 are school students and teachers. Research shows that the best way to support school students is to support parents and teachers at the same time, and to offer complementary learning environments outside of school. Björn: –Yes, and actually it’s not primarily about the fact that university students have problems. We believe in lifelong learning that starts early. Mathematics can alienate children already at a young age. You could see mathematics as a language – but one that is independent of national borders. In that respect, it differs from other languages. What’s more, children who

for various reasons acquire an early aversion to the language of maths will also go through school with a low level of self-confidence. As a result, they never really do themselves justice – which leads to other choices in life that could actually have been avoided.

The ‘Applied Mathematics’ initiative is an approach that hopes to bring about change by working on the root of the problem.

How did you come to apply for a donation from the Erling-Persson Foundation?

Carina: –Over the years we’ve learnt to run Universeum’s activities standing on our own two feet. When we start a major new initiative or take a new approach, however, we always need outside support, so we work systematically to look for such opportunities – including from private foundations. In this case we knew that the Erling-Persson Foundation had given great donations in other contexts.

Carina Halvord, CEO of Universeum.

So this was the first time you had applied?

Carina: –No, we’d made an application once before. But this was the first time that our application was successful. And it feels great!

Do you remember how you felt when you were told?

Carina: –Yes, absolutely. I can remember exactly where I was. It was just before the Christmas holidays and we really couldn’t have had a better end to the working year. It means an incredible amount to us. To be told we were getting such a fantastic donation – SEK 35 million – was incredible. It will enable us to do what we wanted to do, in full. I could barely contain myself – I was calling my colleagues within seconds!

Björn: –And not that many seconds! I was overjoyed too, of course. I know exactly what a crucial decision this will be for many children. It’s like Carina says – the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

What effects do you think ‘Applied Mathematics’ could have from a social perspective?

Björn: –Universeum has a mission of popular education, encompassing everyone in society. In this case we can see – and we’ve known this for many years – that it’s a great challenge for the average Swedish school to get everyone to keep up. Part of that is because schools are not based on individuals. What’s more, in many areas they’re still based on purely instrumental learning.

In short, that means that children may hide their problems with maths for a great many years. They’ve learnt how to deal with certain challenges in the curriculum in technical terms, but they haven’t really understood. When it gets to a point where they can’t hide that any more, they feel completely exposed. Most of us would also lose interest in that situation. We know that.

We believe that there is a massive social benefit to be gained by beginning to work actively to ensure that doesn’t have to happen. And we have a few other things in our toolbox too. I don’t think I’m the right person to talk about the values in that context, but I imagine we can expect increased interest in mathematics – and thus better maths skills – to contribute to very definite social gains.

Carina: –We have extremely high expectations as regards the long-term effect. We look at it in very broad terms: not just that more people can do maths and succeed at school, and move on in various directions, but also in a much broader perspective. More people will go through school and out into the wider world with a good level of self-confidence and selfworth. All children are worthy of that.

What difference do you think it could make for the children, at an individual level?

Carina: –I can give an example from another venture that we called The Power of the Young. It’s about giving more children a better basis for completing their compulsory schooling with a full set of passes, so that they can move on to upper secondary level.

We had a meeting at Universeum in which both school students and school staff participated, and two gangling 15-year-old boys came along. They more or less said: “Maths – oh, we would have failed that. We weren’t going to the lessons. But then we became part of The Power of the Young, and got to rebuild our common room. That’s when we suddenly realised that maths... well, that we needed to be able to do some sums if we were going to do building work. It was so much fun!” So then, from the age of around 14, they could see the point of maths and got a pass in the subject. They liked it and enjoyed doing it. These lads then applied for a building course at vocational college. That’s when you feel it makes a real difference. They probably wouldn’t have applied to college at all if they hadn’t left school with a full set of passes.

We’ve also had some fantastic letters from upper secondary students who write “I learnt more during two weeks at Universeum than in nine years of school”.

Björn: –Something that has made an impression on me is individuals who have completed courses with us or taken part in one of our training packages. People who have come up to me afterwards and said: “I spent my entire time at school thinking I was stupid because I didn’t understand maths. But I wasn’t stupid at all – it was just that my brain worked in a different way. I couldn’t think in the way that people wanted me to. Now that you’ve shown me other ways, I get exactly what it’s about.”

“Many students on university engineering courses do not have adequate mathematics skills. It’s a problem that goes back to much earlier – sometimes right back to primary school.”

That’s the aim of our activities: to open doors. Doors that are not entirely obvious, but that help people understand things. I often think of that “I thought I was stupid”. It says an incredible amount about what we can actually change for people. With Universeum’s ways of working and platforms – and this donation – we can get more and more people to feel smart at doing sums. That’s a fantastic thing. It genuinely secures the future!

18%

In a survey carried out by YouGov in 2021, one in five young men (18 percent) chose “engineer” as their dream job. Mathematics is the backbone of these courses.

10%

Every year around 10 percent of students finish their compulsory schooling without a pass in maths.

80%

80 percent of those on engineering foundation courses have parents who completed higher education. Only a fraction of children from families with a lower level of education get one of the higher grades in maths.

ABOUT THE PROJECT Recipient: Universeum – a foundation-owned national science centre. With its own building, digital portal and wide range of activities alongside programmes for teachers and school students, Universeum gives children and adults an opportunity to explore the world through science and technology and to act for a sustainable world. Universeum’s building in Gothenburg is one of Sweden’s 10 most visited experiences.

Title: ‘Applied Mathematics’

What it involves: An initiative aimed at enabling children and adults to improve their maths skills. The project will develop a unique learning environment and programmes linked to applied mathematics that involve school students, teachers and parents. Three platforms will be used – their own building, the digital portal and a mobile platform. The overall aim is to strengthen mathematics as a basis for innovation and entrepreneurship that leads to sustainable growth.

Funding: The Erling-Persson Foundation is supporting the project with MSEK 35.4 over two years.

Development

of Children