Maths Week Scotland begins
With in person and online events in museums, libraries and galleries Maths Week Scotland will promote this year’s theme, Maths in Motion.
There will be daily challenges for everyone to solve with BBC Bitesize learning videos showing how to solve them.
Many topics will be covered from the maths of money to ceilidh dancing, nautical navigation and maths in football.
The Scottish Mathematical Council have created a series of football-themed films for Maths Week Scotland, in conjunction with the Scottish Football Association and featuring the Hearts Women’s team, the Scottish Football Museum and Rugby Park, the home of Kilmarnock Football Club. The films cover topics as diverse as predicting the outcome of penalty kicks, travel logistics, how to calculate how many people can get through the turnstiles in time for kick-off and the mathematics of the curve on a free kick.
The National Museum of Scotland will host a pop-up exhibition from the Open University entitled Maths in Motion: Pendulums and Patterns, maths-themed Magic Carpet sessions for pre-schoolers, object handling in the Grand Gallery and a maths-themed trail inspired by Dolly the Sheep.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “The Scottish Government is proud to support Maths Week Scotland’s delivery of yet another amazing range of activities to promote the important merits of maths in everyday life. We are determined to do everything we can to inspire the next generation of people to engage with maths and the events and workshops on offer will play an important role in doing exactly that.”
Maths Week Scotland coordinator Ailsa Brien said: “We’re delighted to launch Maths Week Scotland in its seventh consecutive year. Maths in Motion is a theme which invites a wide range of interpretations and so we’re thrilled to see such a creative and diverse programme of activities and events, which I’m sure will inspire and engage a wide range of audiences.”
Pupils in classrooms can also take part with a range of activities available on the Maths Week Scotland website.
In Edinburgh National Museums Scotland will be involved along with The Museum on the Mound, Surgeons’ Hall Museum and National Galleries of Scotland.
All photos Duncan McGlynn