Scottish Museums Day 2022

Why does a golf ball have dimples? Who uses tea as currency? These were some of the questions being answered by museums across Scotland last week for Maths Week Scotland.

For Scottish Museums Day (3 October) we’ve rounded up our favourite activities from museums over the last seven days. Maths isn’t just for Maths Week Scotland though - many museums are continuing to run workshops or make their resources available throughout the year.

Weaving into Maths Week Scotland

North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre kicked things off with a weekend of drop in weaving activities plus special guests Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh - Inverclyde Waulking Group - who performed some music of the weavers and demonstrated spinning and waulking.

Kipper and oysters

We learnt a lot from the Scottish Fisheries Museum #DidYouKnow series. Did you know boats have registration numbers just like cars? And that the angle of a dreg is important for catching oysters?

Visitors to the museum could help Kipper navigate his first adventure at sea. And we also got to look behind the scenes at how people at the museum use maths in their jobs.

Trails galore!

The Scottish Fisheries Museum weren't the only ones with a Maths Trail - schools and families alike also enjoyed trails at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life and the National Museum of Scotland.

Hole in one

In St Andrews the R&A World Golf Museum shared the mathematical objects in their collections and how maths is important in golf.

Weekend visitors joined Deborah and Laura from the Maths Department of the University of St Andrews to discover why golf balls have dimples, learned about the symmetry of golf balls, and their development from featheries to the modern ball.

Forensic Maths

Visitors to Surgeon's Hall Museums could get hands-on with the Forensic Maths drop-in sessions, estimating, measuring & investigating bones & surgical objects.

Money, money, money

Everyone at Museum on the Mound got involved with Maths Week Scotland – even Super Squirrel!

On Facebook they shared their best maths themed object. Would you have guessed what this is?

Several schools also joined in with the museum's digital workshop, and loved learning about the origins of money and finding out about different things used as money in the past!

Building a Pyramid

National Museums Scotland went right back to ancient Egypt for their inspiration for Maths Week Scotland with a brand new set of downloadable resources.

Explore how ancient Egyptians wrote and used numbers, discover how huge stones were moved across Egypt to build the pyramids and have a go at building your own ancient Egyptian model boat - like this primary school from Glasgow.

Ship ahoy

Winton Primary School from Ardrossan had great fun at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, learning about how maths is used in ship building.

The Beauty of Maths

Several schools took inspiration from 'The Beauty of Maths' resource from the National Galleries of Scotland, and produced their own beautiful artworks.

Maths Week Scotland Firsts

Newtongrange P2 class took their first ever class trip to the Scottish Mining Museum and became Gem Hunters for the day!

Beating maths!

And the National Museum of Scotland rounded off the week with an exhibit on 'The Beauty of Maths: Tiling, Geometry & Art', hosted by the Open University, which proved popular with families.