Maths en Jeans congress in Hauts-de-France – MeJ-HdF

Every year, many colleagues from the ANR IZES fundamental mathematics project run Maths.en.Jeans workshops in secondary schools across France, introducing students to mathematical research. Several members of this project will be organising the annual Hauts-de-France conference. It will welcome around 400 students and 80 accompanying adults over 3 days, from 28 to 30 April 2025.

This conference is one of 8 Maths.en.Jeans conferences to be held in 2025, 8 of them in France.
At the conference, the students will present their introductory research work, which they have been doing since September with their teachers and with the help of a researcher who suggests topics and visits them regularly. This is an introduction to research.

MATh.en.JEANS workshops involve immersing pupils in mathematical research in progress, so that they themselves become apprentice researchers. To do this, teachers in a school get in touch with a researcher, who chooses research topics suitable for pupils of all school levels.
The researcher then proposes these topics to the students, who are divided into small groups according to their preferences.
groups according to their preferences. The teachers monitor the progress of the pupils' research on a weekly basis, and the researcher meets them three or four times a year at “seminars” to review progress. Ideally, the researcher works in two twinned schools where he or she proposes the same topics. At the seminars, the subject groups from each school compare their results and ideas. Together, they prepare their presentation for the conference and then write an article.

The annual conference is the high point of the scheme, bringing together those involved - young people, teachers and researchers - in a place chosen for its scientific dynamism, and promoting a different image of science and science education. For three days, the young people put their year's work into practice, presenting their results and putting them to the test of criticism, using posters and activities on their stand at the forum and in the form of lectures in the amphitheatre. This gives them the opportunity to exchange ideas with other budding researchers, professional researchers and the general public, including students, academics and visitors from neighbouring establishments. Each day they also have the opportunity to listen to a plenary lecture by a renowned scientist.