On Monday 23rd March, a group of students from Year 10 and Lower Sixth visited The Hexagon in Reading for a ‘Maths Inspiration Lecture’. This event once again provided our students with the chance to expand their understanding of maths by hearing how it’s been applied in a variety of real-life scenarios experienced by the guest speakers.
The event was hosted by Matt Parker, known as the “stand-up mathematician” with a background in TV and Radio presenting alongside a passion for all things maths. Senior Research Engineer at University College London, Matthew Scroggs, spoke about maths in relation to retro arcade games with a focus on Pac-Man. Alison Kiddle, teacher and puzzlesmith, gave a very insightful talk about understanding probability in one in a million situations, such as when she was on TV quiz show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. Professor of Crowd Safety and Security Science, Aoife Hunt, showcased how GCSE and AS Level maths can be used to understand crowd movement in places like Wembley Stadium and Heathrow Airport.
Leni Samuel, Head of Maths, returned from the trip saying: “Students really came away inspired and more confident, with a much wider sense of what mathematics can be. It helped to deepen their understanding, strengthen their problem-solving skills, and bring maths to life through real-world contexts such as gaming, probability, technology and data science.”
Our students did indeed come back with lot of energetic feedback. Idil (Lower Sixth) enthused: “I found today really engaging, finding out how to better apply maths in the real world in a lot of situations that people wouldn’t think about. Such as on quiz shows or in retro video games!”
Shiraz (Year 10) had to say about the lectures: “I found it very fascinating, especially seeing the different situations and how maths is used in daily life skills.” Yezen (Year 10) followed up with: “I was quite shocked to see how in real life situations, like being on ‘Who Wants To Be a Millionaire’ and in video games maths is so applicable in solving and understanding what to do next.”
Reflecting on what she benefited from this trip, Heather (Lower Sixth) commented: “I think it’s quite important for our education, because it makes our maths lessons more interesting by showing us a new perspective of problem solving.”
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