Making Maths Count

Super Maths at National Museums Scotland

September 8, 2017 by No Comments

Super Maths at National Museums Scotland

When I heard about Maths Week Scotland, it gave me the opportunity to think about how we could bring maths to life for schools at the National Museum of Scotland. Maths is key to the development of so many of our objects and a visit to the museum can include so many different maths elements. Visitors can find objects that belonged to famous Scottish mathematicians such as James Clerk Maxwell’s colour disks that he used during his research on colour vision, and John Napier’s ‘bones’, which he invented to speed up arithmetic calculations. The museum also has inventions on display that required maths and numeracy skills and knowledge in their development, from the punch cards used in the Jacquard Loom, to materials used to construct the new Queensferry Crossing and Forth bridges.

During Maths Week, we are encouraging schools to rediscover some of our popular maths resources. These include two short films which highlight the maths and science used to create two inventions, a Pringle jumper and the i-Limb. Classes can also take part in a Money Challenge which encourages Primary and Secondary pupils to find out more about careers in the Finance industry. Our Sheet Metal Challenge is fantastic for classes learning about shapes and area and can be played online in class, as well as in our Making It gallery.

Alongside these resources, I decided that we would develop our popular Superhero Science Show to have a maths element during the week, and asked teachers who had taken part in the show in June 2017 to help us with this. Rachael Brown (St Gabriels RC Primary in East Lothian) and Sophie Allen (Pirniehall Primary in Edinburgh) both gave us invaluable advice about the new Numeracy and Mathematics Benchmarks for Primary 3-5 pupils and helped us develop four challenges.

Pupils coming to the show during Maths Week will undertake four maths challenges in class. These include:

  • An area activity based on moving our aircraft in the museum
  • Pass the Super Panda timed challenged using multiplication
  • Super sums about the show which provide the class with a secret code
  • A super speed challenge linked into the Daily Mile

We’ve had good feedback so far from teachers using the challenges and we’re looking forward to welcoming classes next week to hear what they’ve found out. Our Superhero Science show runs again in January and April 2018, and classes taking part can access the Maths Challenge, allowing their maths and numeracy learning to continue throughout the rest of the year.

We’re really looking forward to a super Maths Week at the National Museum of Scotland and extend an invite to you all to take part with us!

Sarah Cowie, Learning Officer (Schools)

National Museums Scotland


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