STEM Risk
Resources linked to a range of real life risk scenarios.
PfEG
This activity will give pupils an understanding of financial risk, allowing them to to identify how our actions can have consequences that impact on our economic wellbeing. They will develop skills of critical reflection, learn how emotions influence the risks we are prepared to take and identify that people perceive risks in different ways
How risky is life
Pupils start from fears and risks they know about and, by comparing them with real- life data, recognise that the fears are often unfounded and that their perceptions of the risks tend to be driven by presentations in the media. Pupils work with real data; they deduce information about small probabilities and use measures of average and spread in real life. Pupils calculate the risks involved for various activities and how these are related to the base risk of death for typical people of different ages and genders. The emphasis is on order-of-magnitude comparisons, reflecting the variations in risk between individuals and over time. Pupils learn that mathematical thinking is essential to put risks in perspective, which can affect how people live, and that the media usually focus on stories rather than on information.
Taking Risks
n this SATIS Revisited resource the activities take students through a comparison of the risks associated with different activities using data at personal, community, national and global levels.
There are three activities in this unit, which have been written to be followed sequentially. Students work through a comparison of the risks associated with different activities using data at personal, community, national and global levels.
In the first activity, Fancy a swim?, students analyse data on drowning incidents and decide whether swimming in rivers and streams should or should not be banned.
For the second activity, Calculating and comparing risk, students calculate the risks involved in various activities and then compare the risks and benefits of some sports and methods of travel, and decide what level of personal risk is acceptable.
The unit concludes with an activity called, Time to decide – should we be making decisions for others?, in which students research and debate the balance of risks and benefits of technologies that affect everybody, e.g. growing GM (genetically modified) crops, using nuclear power stations or burning fossils fuels to generate electricity, and decide who should be making the decisions.
Calculating and comparing risk and Time to decide could also be used in isolation if some background information is provided for students. The third activity could be used as an extension.
Taking a Risk
This resource from the Department for Education is designed to use and apply the uncertain and difficult nature of probability calculations in the real world through the work of an actuarial trainee. Students are provided with data on sea piracy, and use this to calculate the annual cost of piracy to the shipping industry, the probability of piracy for a particular company, and recommend to an insurance company the annual premium they should charge the company as protection from losses incurred due to piracy. The activity is best conducted in groups or pairs as the data and ideas need considerable discussion to help students make decisions on the way of proceeding.
Professor Risk
David Spiegelhalter's actual title is Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge. In this Cambridge Ideas video he discusses the relative risks of eating a bacon sandwich or eating a bowl of porridge for breakfast, compares the risks associated with different types of transport and considers what risks are encountered in the workplace. He shows how statistics are used to face up to life's major risks and comes to a surprising conclusion.
Risk Factors of Disease Workshop
These three activities, from Centre of the Cell, introduce the idea that there are certain factors, called risk factors, which can increase a person’s likelihood of developing a disease. Students learn how scientists use research to determine what the risk factors are for various diseases.
Using data analysis skills, students calculate risk factors through details of family histories and lifestyle factors. They determine correlations between healthy lifestyles and health, make and read graphs, design a valid experiment, compare experimental methodologies and look at how scientists work.
Taking Decisions, Not Risks
A Mathematics Matters case study which looks at how advances in statistics allow us to analyse risks and consequences and so make informed decisions. Risks are an unavoidable part of modern life, but mathematicians and statisticians have developed a variety of methods to help mitigate its effects. These techniques enable hospitals, banks and other organisations to make better decisions, based on evidence and facts. The resource can be used by teachers to guide their students or shared directly with students to inform them about careers using mathematics.
