Mathematics for secondary school education

Mathematics is the queen of the sciences. Without the knowledge of mathematics, no great technical invention would be made, no houses would be built, no power plants would be built, no means of transport would be constructed, no medical devices, mobile phones, computers, navigation devices or other information technologies would be developed. Together with the development of computer technology, mathematical models allow us to predict the weather or the spread of epidemics and pests, to describe and understand the conduction of excitement along nerve fibres, gene interactions and their influence on the emergence of disease or the emergence and development of human resistance to antibiotics, and to evaluate the effectiveness of possible countermeasures against some of these processes. Thus, mathematics now forms the basis of the technical, natural and socio-economic sciences. Last but not least, the enormous success of the creators of commercial software products and the film and entertainment industries is also based on mathematical applications. In addition, students of mathematics teaching at the Faculty of Mathematics at JU have a unique opportunity to study the applications of mathematics in biology, i.e. the use of mathematical methods to solve various biological problems, such as questions of the influence of the behaviour of organisms on the dynamics of populations and communities, mechanisms of biodiversity conservation, pest control, or the spread of infectious diseases, with a scientific background in this area. The close collaboration with secondary schools in the provision of didactic mathematics teaching is also a great strength of the study. The didactic training at the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia is focused on useful and practical knowledge and competences of future secondary school teachers. Teacher education students are in contact with experienced secondary school teachers who are active in secondary schools, have many years of practical teaching experience and are at an excellent professional level. As a result, teacher education students will meet respected teachers who have guided hundreds of students through secondary school during their studies.