Studies show a lack in students’ motivation in learning mathematics. This has a negativeimpact on several areas:• Many fields in the world of work rely on an understanding of mathematics• Many decision-making processes in society, politics, economy, ecology, personalenvironment etc. require at least a basic understanding of principles in mathematics• Students who are less motivated to learn mathematics are much less likely to becomemotivated teachers in mathematicsOne of the main reasons that students give as to their lack of motivation in learningmathematics is that “it is too abstract, has no applications, and no usefulness forstudents and for later life”. We will tackle this situation with two approaches:• Show that mathematics is everywhere, applications of mathematics in the real world.Particularly create modules to be used by teachers and students in school, andteacher trainers and trainees.• Show that you can take (mathematically) important tasks and “dress them up”, i.e. givethem a context or a several possible contexts making it interesting for a variety ofstudents. Again show some examples and also show how to open up a problem. Haveworkshops for teachers to create good contexts to a given mathematical problem.Expected results:• Book with materials:o Examples of interesting applications of mathematics in the real worldo Examples of mathematically important tasks whose contexts have beenimproved to aid the learnero Instructions and tips on how to find interesting applications and how to createor improve context for mathematics tasks• Course and workshop for pre- and in-service-teachers too show applications of mathematics from 1ao instruct and help teachers develop context, using examples from 1b• Web-page containing electronic version of book and materials for courses• Final conference to present materials 1, 2 and 3 to teacher educators, teachers andteacher students, with workshops to actively work with and develop further materials