By Agnes Homwe
At Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Education Faculty, mathematics moved beyond the lecture halls and into a public exhibition space through a student-led initiative focused on Women in Mathematics. The project was led by Mathematics lecturer, Erika Potgieter, who challenged her second-year Mathematics Education 277 students to rethink how mathematics is taught, experienced, and shared.
“Mathematics is more than chalk and talk,” said Potgieter, “It is a situated, embodied cognitive experience where learners engage through dialogue, creativity, and interaction.” The exhibition featured second-year education students, each highlighting women mathematicians while designing hands-on learning activities for grade-four learners.
Michelle van Heerden, a second-year BEd (Intermediate Phase) student and her group drew inspiration from the film Hidden Figures. Their work focused on grade-four data handling through bar graphs and a data-collecting game. “We realised mathematics can actually be interesting and interactive,” van Heerden said. “It doesn’t just exist in the classroom; it can be applied anywhere.”
Ahmed Kader and Megan Julies, second-year BEd (Intermediate Phase) students focused on Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to win the Fields Medal, a prestigious award recognising mathematicians under 40 who made an important contribution to the field. Her groundbreaking work in geometry and topology became the foundation for their exhibition.
“We tried to take something from Mirzakhani’s doctoral thesis and make it understandable for a grade-four classroom,” Kader said. “Maths is about creativity as well; you can’t just see it as formulas.”
To demonstrate Mirzakhani’s ideas, the group used a bouncing ball activity to model moments in changing geometric spaces. Julies added that their other activity, one using a doughnut, helped show how mathematical properties remain consistent even when shapes are transformed. “It shows children that mathematics isn’t fixed – that it can be visual, flexible and creative,” she said.
Across many groups, students highlighted challenges such as time constraints, group co-ordination, and simplifying advanced mathematics for young learners. However, they agreed that the experience improved both their understanding of mathematics and their future teaching skills. It made them realise how one can translate complex mathematical proofs into a format that is tangible and digestible for a nine-year-old.
Potgieter emphasised that the project also focused on inclusivity, collaboration and social impact, requiring students to work with a real school and adopt a “Maths-on-a-shoestring” approach by using recyclable materials in their designs.
The exhibition ultimately aimed to make mathematics visible by shifting the perception of mathematics. As Potgieter put it, “Everyone can do mathematics; it is everywhere, from budgeting to patterns in everyday life.” By centering women in mathematics, the exhibition did more than showcase designs, it showed that when women lead the conversation, mathematics becomes a visible, inclusive, and everyday reality for all.
