Our Maths Week Scotland 2020 highlights

We are coming to the end of another fantastic year of maths inspiration and activity throughout Scotland! We’ve really enjoyed seeing all of your social media posts and following your exploration of maths throughout the week.

While Maths Week Scotland has taken a slightly different format this year in line with the “new normal”, this hasn’t stopped the celebration of maths and moving to an online model of events has allowed more pupils to get involved without geographical barriers.

We’ve seen loads of maths activities in the great outdoors helped by the Outdoor Activity Kit provided to schools in The Highland Council, thanks to the Science Skills Academy’s support.

Pupils from Kirkhill Primary School got us started for the week with their advert of what they love about Maths Week Scotland!

We also saw scavenger hunts, shape searches and nature art creations from early years up to secondary school.

It wasn’t just fun during the school day though! On Monday evening, we were treated to an online conversation with world-renowned mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy who delivered an incredibly thought-provoking session around the future of creativity and the power of artificial intelligence.

Maths was brought to life in the classroom pupils on Tuesday during Maths Inspiration. This interactive online event featured a fantastic lineup of inspiring mathematicians who presented mathematics live in an exciting, real-life context.

All week organisations and individuals sharing the ways that maths is important to them in #ShowYourWorking. This included engineers, archeaologists, chefs and app developers! Checkout some of the highlights and share your examples with us on Twitter @MathsWeekScot.

Maths Week Scotland was supported by celebrities such as Olympian and Maths graduate, Eilish McColgan; mathematics professor and broadcaster Hannah Fry; entrepreneur, TV presenter and Maths graduate Amar Latif; and comic illustrator Rossie Stone.

From measuring ingredients in Masterchef to setting up his own business - Amar Latif shared with us how maths has impacted his life.

We also heard from Paralympian Jonny Paterson on how he went from disliking maths at school to using it to plan training programmes, studying training performance data and in game analysis to make decisions about what to do next!

Olympic athlete Eilish McColgan chatted with primary schools in Stirling about how maths helps her train for races.

Loads of you combined sports and maths (just like Eilish!) with sports days and taking maths out to the playground.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney was back for 2020 with his daily maths challenges. We’ve loved seeing your Tweets and posts of you getting involved, and of course the smiling faces when you’ve cracked the solution!

Pupils put their skills to the test in this year’s Maths Week Scotland challenges from Sumdog and Mangahigh, competing for the top spot on the leaderboard and some fabulous prizes.

Not forgetting the huge range of activities taking place in classrooms all over the country.

We even saw the involvement of some adorable furry friends, too!

Thousands of you took part across Scotland from Shetland to Dumfries and Eigg to Edinburgh. Thank you for getting involved with Maths Week Scotland sharing what you have been up to!

A huge thank you also to all the organisers and people behind the scenes who packed boxes, ordered materials, planned lessons, ran online sessions and generally make Maths Week Scotland happen!

Didn’t get a chance to fit everything in to the week? Don’t worry. We keep all our resources up on the website year round and look out for special events happening through the year. Every week is Maths Week!

We are always trying to improve Maths Week Scotland and want to hear from you on what you would like to see in future years. If you attended any of our Maths Week Scotland online events or used activities at home please let us know what you thought here and teachers please let us know what you thought here.