Reading Tasks
Reading Tasks
Read Why do buses come in threes? The Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life. Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham’s book will change the way you see the world!
Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics
Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics by Talithia Williams. Read about female mathematicians throughout history.
17 Equations that changed the World
Read 17 Equations that changed the World by Professor Ian Stewart
Read Humble Pi – a comedy of maths errors, by Matt Parker. Read real life stories about how maths goes wrong with real world consequences by mathmagician Matt Parker.
Available in the LRC.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
Read The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth, by Paul Hoffman.
The Simpsons and their mathematical secrets
Read The Simpsons and their mathematical secrets, by Simon Singh. See how a writing team of mathematicians include mathematics within this popular animation.
Available in the LRC.
Read The Music of the Primes: why an unsolved problem in mathematics matters, by Marcus Du Sautoy.
Significant Figures
Read Significant Figures: Lives and works of trailblazing mathematicians, by Professor Ian Stewart. History of many mathematicians and their influences on modern society.
Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine
Read Hello World, How to be Human in the age of the machine, by Dr Hannah Fry. You are accused of a crime. Who would you rather determines your fate – a human or a machine?
Listening Tasks
Relatively Prime
Listen to maths documentary podcast – Relatively Prime, by Samuel Hansen.
Listen to podcasts from The Numberphile, full of fascinating number facts.
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Listen to In our Time with Melvyn Bragg discussing the ideas of Carl Friedrich Gauss.
A Brief History of Mathematics
Listen to A Brief History of Mathematics, a BBC Radio 4 podcast by Marcus du Sautoy Listen to all 10 episodes.
The Infinite Monkey Cage, a podcast with Robin Ince and Professor Brian Cox.
The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry
Listen to The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry podcast, with Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry.
Watching Tasks
Read Hidden Figures by by Margot Lee Shetterly. The story of the African-American Mathematicians of NASA who helped America win the Space Race. Read the book and watch the film.
Visit Standup Mathematician Matt Parker’s Youtube channel for a selection of fun videos on a whole range of topics.
For more videos to watch try www.bensparks.co.uk a mathematician, musician and speaker. Watch the golden ratio and listen to Ben play Sting’s Shape of My heart as part of Sacred Geometry talk
Watch ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’, starring Dev Patel Enjoy the biography based drama on the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Watch this 60 minute documentary film as nine UK-based mathematicians offering insights into their mathematical thinking across a broad range of fields.
Watch the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’, starring Russell Crowe, directed by Ron Howard. Learn about the mathematical genius of John Forbes Nash Jr.
Watch Tom Crawford explain the SIR disease model for COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as well as videos on a wide range of mathematics on his Tom Rocks Maths website.
Watch BBC Magic Numbers Mysterious World of Maths, a BBC documentary exploring the world of maths with Dr Hannah Fry.
Particle Fever follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, marking the start-up of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet, pushing the edge of human innovation.
The Story of 1 is a BBC documentary about the history of numbers, and in particular, the number 1. It was presented by former Monty Python member Terry Jones.
You will need to subscribe to watch the video.
Research Tasks
Research the life and work of Alan Turing. Watch ‘The Imitation Game’, and read the book of the same name, about his involvement in code breaking of Enigma.
Research Gearg Cantor and different infinities: https://mathigon.org/timeline
Research Florence Nightingale to understand her contributions to the world of statistics: https://mathigon.org/timeline
Research Ada Lovelace and her works: https://mathigon.org/timeline
Research Homer Hickman. Read his biography Rocket Boys. Watch the movie October Sky starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Learn how the son of a coal miner designed.
Muhammed Al-Khwarizmi
Research Muhammed Al-Khwarizmi. Look at the timeline of mathematicians to see how each builds on the work of others.
Research the Golden Gate Bridge and how the curvature of the earth changes its structure.
Trips & Visits
Visit Bletchley Park and explore the world of coding and maths - details here.
Mechanical, Art & Design museum
Visit the Mechanical, Art & Design museum, Stratford-upon-Avon https://themadmuseum.co.uk/
Visit the Science Museum, Maths Gallery here.
Follow the London Maths Trails created by Chris Olley at KCL here.
Bank of England Museum
Visit the Bank of England Museum here.
National Museum of Mathematics in New York if you ever happen to be there… https://momath.org/
Creative Tasks
Draw an impossible Hexagon here.
What other optical illusions can you draw?
Read Things to make and do in the fourth dimension by Matt Parker. What can you create?
Student Led Tasks
Explore problems from nrich maths, including mathematical art.
Support Year 11 students as a 121 tutor or support Year 7 students as a tutor in maths skills intervention.
Try the two trains puzzle as discussed in the film A Beautiful Mind.
Develop your problem solving skills by trying these UKMT Maths Challenge questions.
Look up Cambridge University maths here for resources with the aim of enabling all students to explore the connections that underpin mathematics.
Think about what makes a good mathematician….Visit this website to get some prompts and links to many other activities.
Subscribe to the online Plus Magazine: https://plus.maths.org/content/about-plus
Try challenging mathematical problems:https://brilliant.org/dailyproblems/
Use Wolphram Alpha for its fascinating search engine and to explore new mathematics.
Make video clips of maths topics to help GCSE students with revision.
Lots of fun puzzles to try at: https://mathschallenge.net/
Celebrate Pi day with an interesting way to calculate Pi using colliding blocks here.