Throughout my time at Cowie Primary School, I am extremely fortunate to have been able to have collaborated with Lynne Reid, RHET volunteer and dairy farmer, at Plean Farm in Stirling. I have taken classes to visit the farm as part of a ‘Farming’ learning context. Furthermore, I have welcomed RHET volunteers and farmers into my classroom to deliver educational talks about the life of a farmer.

In 2020, Lynne and I talked about the possibility of a class adopting one of her dairy cows at Plean Farm in Stirling. This inspired many thoughts about the endless possibilities to make meaningful curriculum links.

In November 2022, the initial ‘chat’ came to fruition when I was able to take my class of Primary 3 learners to visit Plean Farm and officially meet, and adopt, their very own cow. The adoption process was completed by registering her name and date of birth – learners voted for ‘Buttercup’ and her calf, ‘Daisy’.

At the same time, I was involved in a collaborative Numeracy project between Education Scotland and Bannockburn Learning Community. One of the aims of the project was to develop a consistent approach to Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) pedagogy.

I was able to use a myriad of CPA approaches using what has become ‘Moo Maths’, let’s take a look at what this involved…

Monthly data

Farmer Lynne printed out graphs displaying information collected from Buttercup each month. The data was then delivered to me to interpret and personalise in line with Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes, at this stage, First Level. The range of data could, however, be interpreted by stages from early years through to secondary education.

Farmer Lynne condensed the data in order to support me to extract the key information for my Numeracy and Mathematics lessons.

I devised problem solving questions from ‘Buttercup’. Learners collaborated in Number Trios to solve problems by using concrete materials and a CPA approach, nurturing CPA pedagogy. I created CPA mats, these became known as our ‘Moo Maths Mats’, the mats were set out to support learners at different stages of their Numeracy and Mathematics learning journey. All learners started with solving the problem using concrete materials before moving on to show pictorial representations then abstract methodology.

The journey of milk and milk production

After visiting Plean Farm and learning about the journey of milk and milk production, I was able to explore other areas of Numeracy and Mathematics. In addition to number processes, I was able to create Buttercup problems to incorporate learning activities to explore measurement and information benchmarks.

Problem solving in tinkering teams

Learners chose which ‘Tinkering Team’ they wanted to be in, based on the range of concrete materials in the class. These stations were intentionally designed to create opportunities for learners’ personalisation and choice, learners chose how to support their learning by selecting the concrete materials they found most useful.

The following challenge was to use concrete materials to display information about Buttercup’s daily grass consumption and daily milk production.

Tasty tatties project

As well as data from Buttercup, we also embraced other opportunities during our summer term when the context for learning was predominantly ‘Farming’. Primary 3 chitted potatoes as part of the RHET Tasty Tatties project then weighed the potatoes before planting. Learners applied prior learning whilst preparing and planting the potatoes. The chitted potatoes weighed 297g. Potatoes were planted and learners observed signs of growth. Potatoes will be harvested by our families when we welcome families to the community garden in the summer.

Some feedback....

“When we saw the picture of the scan with Buttercup’s baby, we were so excited.” (MB)

“We are excited to find out if it is a boy or a girl.” (AB)

“Moo maths is fun because we get to use all the different concrete materials to solve problems for Buttercup.” (RM)

“I like Moo Maths because we get to weigh things to find out how much Buttercup eats in a day.” (MB)

“I like when Farmer Katie and Farmer Lynne came in to our class to smell all the different foods from the farm.” (KG)

“I liked it when Angus the cow visited us because it helped us learn about the different parts of a cow.” (JM)

“I felt happy when we went to the farm and found out we had adopted a cow.” (KL)

“We learned how to milk a cow then we went outside and made an outdoor udder.” (IY)

“We went outdoors to measure the volume of milk Buttercup makes in a day.” (RM)

“We learned that Buttercup uses a pedometer, we made numbers to show how many steps she does in a day.” (MB) 

“We are working in teams to make our own farms.” (AB)

“We are learning all about numbers but we are also helping Buttercup to learn about all her numbers too!” (OS)

“We try to show lots of different ways of solving the one problem.” (AJ)

I can find weights at home because I know how much a kg is now. Buttercup eats 60 kg a day, that’s a lot.” (WG)

Katie Brisbane, Project Coordinator, RHET Forth Valley feedback: 

"RHET can offer free farm visits which can bring moo maths to life by offering pupils a chance to see first-hand how their data (learning) is not only collected and used by the farmer but how it fits into food traceability and legislation. Offering on farm experience gives a lifelong learning experience, encourages food sovereignty and sustainable life choices. If on farm learning is not an option RHET can also organise for either digital or face to face contact with farmers, again pupils gain practical and real-life maths in action as well as gaining valuable exposure to the food production industry."