Degressive proportionality - source, findings and discussion of the Cambridge Compromise. Mathematical Economics, 2011, Nr 7 (14), s. 39-50
The principle of degressive proportionality in relation to the division of indivisible goods in the past few years – especially since the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon – has been one of the topics frequently appearing in studies of economists, mathematicians, lawyers and people involved in politics. It combines a purely theoretical and easily definable question with a very important practical problem that concerns primarily members of the European Union and countries aspiring to become one. The article shall include a debate and discussion of the findings of the Cambridge Compromise concerning proposals to solve the problem of allocating seats in the European Parliament.
The allocation between EU member states of seats in the European Parliament
This note contains the recommendation for a mathematical basis for the apportionment of the seats in the European Parliament between the Member States of the European Union. This is the unanimous recommendation of the Participants in the Cambridge Apportionment Meeting, held at the instigation of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, on 28–29 January 2011.
Science Buddies: Advancing Informal Science Education
An innovative nonprofit enables scientists to present inspiring project ideas based on their own research to K–12 students, parents, and teachers. Every year, about 10 million North American kindergarten through high school (K–12) students complete a science project. What part of these science projects is the most difficult? Formulating a hypothesis? Designing an experiment? Analyzing data? The answer: None of the above. Science Buddies (www.sciencebuddies.org)—a nonprofit developer of software, content, and other resources for informal science and engineering education—found that students have the most difficulty selecting a topic and doing background research to inform their work. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers interested in advising and inspiring students often do not have a means to connect with them (see the first figure). To Science Buddies, these difficulties presented an ideal challenge, and we applied a business methodology to address them, viewing our users as customers and our output as products.