Maths in Museums

Free school resources designed for young people aged 11-14 to explore the Future of Money exhibition

Starting in late April 2022Maths students will be shown our exciting new augmented reality experience where they will see the ship’s engines working. No other ship in London can offer this level of immersion and understanding. After a brief tour, which covers the historical use of the vessel as a convoy ship in WWII the […]

An analysis and experiential learning based session exploring the crucial role of ships in the Merchant Navy and Royal Navy during the Battle of the Atlantic in WWIIFollowing an introduction to the Battle of the Atlantic and an engaging interactive exploration of ship terminology, students will be split into three groups to rotate around the […]

Students use supplied packs of materials to develop their mathematical thinking. For ages 11–14 (KS3).

MathsCity is the UK's first mathematics discovery centre

National Museum of Mathematics (New York): Inspiring math exploration and discovery

A blog post I wrote about the Winton Maths Gallery at the London Science Museum, and why I don't like it.

When you think of a science museum, maths may not come to mind. Our museums go beyond science and tell stories from all aspects of STEM. In the second post of our ‘maths engagement’ series, Jess Sashaw unlocks the maths behind some of our collection themes.

This is a blog that I use to collate examples of maths popping up in real life. If you uncover any stories or tug on any mathematical strands in your museums, objects or histories, I'd love to know about them and feature them here: guest posts encouraged!

The History of Science Museum (Oxford) has undertaken projects to share the excitement of maths in everyday life with children and young people through facilitated workshops from Early Years to KS4, as well as exploring some of the mathematical objects in their collection.

I developed an activity pack for the Devil's Porridge Museum. The activity focused on designing a cordite factory by placing buildings according to rules (e.g. minimum distance requirements in case of explosions). This involved aspects of geometry including loci.

I contributed an activity to the Scottish Fisheries Museum's maths trail. The activity involved reading information from a fishing crew's timetable, and solving a problem to complete the timetable based on different crewmembers' tasks and time requirements. Reading and understanding timetables is a part of maths curricula in the UK.

I created a pack for Lauriston Castle that enabled them to run a family activity in which participants made and learnt how to use a set of "Napier's Bones", a calculating device created by John Napier in the 17th Century. Napier was a Scottish mathematician with a family connection to Lauriston Castle. His calculation method is easily understood by primary school children and is also related to Napier's work on the development of logarithms.

A (non exhaustive) list of mathematicians from London throughout history. Do you recognise any names from your museum's story and collections?

I created a lot of maths activities, sessions and workshops for Bletchley Park. This is a brief write-up of one of them.

I interviewed an educator from the National Football Museum for part of my MA thesis. Their First Division football & maths session is designed to use football as a hook to improve student confidence in maths.

I interviewed an educator from Norwich Castle Museum about their "Storming the Castle" maths & history session for part of my MA thesis. This session has remained popular with many regional secondary school maths departments who return year after year (I interviewed one teacher who had booked this activity every year for nearly twenty years, except when the museum was closed due to the pandemic).

Working towards my MA thesis I spoke to an educator from the Vasarely Museum in Budapest. Part of their learning offer focuses on exploring mathematical concepts and the language used to describe them in order to better understand aspects of Vasaerly's work.

My MA Education research thesis titled "Maths in Museums: Investigating the potential benefits of maths-based museum learning activities to secondary schools, heritage sites and student attitudes towards mathematics".

An assignment submitted as part of my MA in Education which looks at the effect that widespread attitudes to mathematics have on maths education, and what people can do outside the classroom to help improve the situation.

The theme of this year’s GEM Conference was A Way Forward for Museum Learning, which in a single phrase states exactly what we’re all looking for following the lockdowns and […]

Maths Week Scotland started encouraging museums to take part a few years ago, and many took up the challenge. Since then, some of these museums have requested further training each year to develop what they have done previously, and a few have even embedded some of their new activities into their learning programmes all year round.

Maths Week Scotland is a focal week of activity taking place in autumn aimed at a wide range of audiences. In addition to the week itself there are special events and resources available for schools, families, adults and community groups through the year.

A document from National Museum Wales listing 22 activity ideas relating to various mathematical topics that encourage exploration of some of the museums' objects, collections and stories.

565 Posts, 297 Following, 340 Followers · .... .. .. .- -- - --- -- Maths, museums, digital/online learning: Freelancer & consultant in any combination of the above. Also nerd, guitarist, moviegoer...

.... .. .. .- -- - --- -- Maths, museums, digital learning: Freelancer & consultant in the above. Also nerd, guitarist, moviegoer... @TeaKayB@mathstodon.xyz

Koch Snowflake Construction