Thursday, March 23

Ice-Breakers

Each participant was given a name tag containing symbols representing numbers from different systems, such as binary and Chinese. The object of the exercise was to discover "like" numbers from other systems to determine what participants you were seated with. The exercise also allowed participants to feel a bit of the confusion that people can experience when they encounter mathematical symbols or formulas that they are not familiar with, and it also provided an interesting and fun way to meet others.

Welcoming Remarks

George Hood, Vice-Principal of Queen's University, welcomed participants to the Roundtable, and Christiane Dodge, Director of the National Literacy Secretariat, expressed her desire that participants learn more about the issues, challenges and future directions of numeracy work in order to develop, deliver and promote it across Canada.

Friday, March 24

Organization of the Day

Facilitator Dominique Dennery introduced the agenda for the day's explorations and outlined the selection of topics for group discussions and plenary sessions.

Show and Tell

Participants shared a bit about their background, experience and expectations with regard to numeracy and this Roundtable.

Discussion Groups

Participants formed groups to discuss a number of specific topics of relevance to numeracy work. All groups were asked to first discuss the general concept of numeracy, and then to discuss the main considerations within chosen topics.