Maths in Action

On Thursday 7th December, Year 10 students embarked on a trip to London’s Emmanuel Centre for a GCSE Maths in Action Day, to help deepen their understanding of key mathematical concepts, improve problem solving skills and most importantly generate an interest for all things Maths.

The event was a wonderful opportunity for our students to participate in a range of engaging and interactive activities with experienced speakers, all designed to enhance their learning and help students achieve their full potential in Maths.

The initial workshop was entitled ‘Patterns and Predictions’ by Colin Wright, Mathematician and Juggler. Colin gave a talk about puzzles, patterns, and concluded with finding some unexpected patterns in juggling.

Next on the agenda was ‘Over-analysing Video Games’ by Matthew Scroggs, University College London, who applied mathematical thinking to Pac-Man and other video games. He aimed to work out the shortest possible route to complete a Pac-Man level, and shared the 2-, 3- and 4-dimensional shapes that video game characters live on.

The final instalment was ‘Maths v Sport’ led by Tom Crawford, University of Oxford, who explained how Maths can be used to improve your performance in a range of sports and to tackle questions such as: How do you take the perfect penalty? What is the limit of human endurance? Where is the best place to attempt a world record?

Additionally, an Exam Masterclass was shared with the students in order to provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in their iGCSE Maths exams. This class was led by experienced examiners who have a deep understanding of the exam format and types of questions likely to be asked.

Theresa McConalogue, Maths teacher, summarised, “A great selection of mini lectures introducing students to areas of Mathematics they may never have seen such as Networks, Graph Theory and Mathematical modelling through practical contexts such as juggling video game analysis, music, chess and scoring the perfect penalty. Maths really can be found anywhere and everywhere if you look hard enough!”