Brombacher & Associates - Financial Mathematics

about brombacher

Brombacher and Associates is an education support company that specialises in the areas of Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy from primary school to college level.

We work in three key areas:

·Training: We support and train teachers and college lecturers to teach Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy.

·Materials development: We develop teaching support materials and curriculum to meet the requirements of our clients and their setting.

·Research: We conduct research for our clients on interventions and/or the state of teaching/learning in contexts and make recommendations on improvements.

Our clients include: departments of education (both national and provincial); non-government organisations (NGOs); universities; schools and colleges and education foundations to name a few.

Financial Mathematics – a critical exploration

With the news full of stories about people losing their savings to Ponzi (pyramid) schemes; going on strike (despite the financial consequences to themselves); playing the Lotto with the hope of instant wealth; and having their cars, homes and other possessions repossesed, we should ask the question: What is the role of Mathematical Literacy in developing financial acumen?

On Saturday 5 September Aarnout Brombacher contributed to the fifth annual Marang workshop on Mathematical Literacy for teachers.On Saturday 12 September, Aarnout presented a similar workshop at the Mathematics Centre of St Andrew's College (SAC) and The Diocesan School For Girls (DSG) in Grahamstown.

The Excel spreadsheet used to explore the parameters in loan and investment situations can be downloaded here: (click here).

The handout for this activity can be downloaded here:(click here).

To access some of the handouts and other spreadsheet models used in the SAC/DSG workshop click on the "Read more..." link below.

SAC DSG presentation

In addition to the workshop session on Financial Mathematics – a critical exploration, Aarnout persented two further sessions:

Building parabolic reflector dishes: in this session participating teachers were introduced to an activity on building a parabolic reflector and worked together to build their own parabolic reflector dishes to gain insight into this project which is well suited to Grade 11s and/or Grade 12s Mathematics.

The Geometer's Sketch Pad (GSP) file used in the introduction can be downloaded here: (click here).

The handout provided at the workshop can be downloaded here: (click here).

Ideas for Mathematical Literacy: in this session Aarnout described two different contexts that could be used in the teaching and assessment of Mathematical Literacy.

The mathematics of harvesting water - an application of volume and area.

The handout for this activity can be downloaded here: (click here).

The spreadsheet model for this activity can be downloaded here: (click here).

The mathematics of drinking - an application of formulae.

The handout for this activity can be downloaded here: (click here).

The spreadsheet model for this activity can be downloaded here: (click here).

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