Making Maths Count
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Transforming Scotland’s attitude to maths
18th March 2016 by Maureen McKenna
As Chair of the Making Maths Count group tasked with increasing enthusiasm for maths, I’m delighted to update you on our work as we publish our interim report. As Executive Director of Education at Glasgow City Council, it’s no surprise that educating our young people is my priority. But, as a maths teacher, challenging the...
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Maths and football – predicting the Scottish Premiership
16th March 2016 by David Sumpter
Football fans start to get really edgy about the numbers around now. They’re thinking about the games left to come, the likely outcomes and what that means for their team’s league position. Put simply, they’re doing a lot of maths. Today’s guest blogger, mathematician Professor David Sumpter, has gone a step further and used mathematical modelling...
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Maths in the kitchen – Flora shares a pie for Pi day
14th March 2016 by Flora Shedden
It’s Pi Day – largely celebrated in the US where they have a different style for writing the date, but their way does make today the lovely 3.14. In celebration, Flora Shedden from The Great British Bake Off has joined with Making Maths Count to share her enthusiasm for maths – and to mark the day she’s also created us...
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The beauty of maths
4th March 2016 by Tara Brendle
“I just think it’s beautiful.” That’s Prof. Tara Brendle’s view of maths. Here she explains how mathematical thinking is used in all we do, and how it appears to be a subject with a special place in the hearts of taxi drivers. For me maths has always been about patterns. What first drew me to...
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Maths and music – keeping the beat
2nd March 2016 by Paul Quinn
“Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.” The words of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, a German mathematician and philosopher who co-discovered calculus, resonate loudly with Scots drummer Paul Quinn, who explains how numbers are an integral part of playing music, and the wider music industry....
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Using maths to change lives – thanks to a supportive mother
26th February 2016 by Dr Liberty Vittert
Ever heard of the ‘growth mindset’? It’s about believing you can improve at something, albeit with a lot of hard work and perseverance. It’s talked about a lot in sports. But what about maths? Well here there’s a problem. Too many people have a ‘fixed mindset’ when it comes to numbers – they believe they can or can’t do maths and...
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Learning AND laughing – maths gets murderous
23rd February 2016 by Kjartan Poskitt
Can maths be fun? Author Kjartan Poskitt certainly thinks so. His Murderous Maths books have been entertaining children, and educating them on the side, for 20 years. Ahead of his show at the Edinburgh International Science Festival next month, he spoke to us about the approach he takes to get children enjoying maths. About 20...
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Want to change the world?
19th February 2016 by Caroline Stuart
Want to change the world? You should be embracing maths then. Here Caroline Stuart, Director of Oracle Scotland and a member of our Making Maths Count group, explains why. To me it seems incredibly odd that there are still people who think maths can only lead to a boring career, sitting on your own, staring...
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Gingerbread, weather and cricket – it’s all in the maths!
16th February 2016 by Heather Reid
A gingerbread Coliseum, the weather and cricket. What’s the link? As Heather Reid, former BBC Scotland weather forecaster and a member of our Making Maths Count group explains, it’s maths. I’ve always liked maths and working with numbers. I think I made the link between maths and science fairly early on and found it so...
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Let’s talk about maths
15th February 2016 by Katrina Coutts
Welcome to the Making Maths Count blog. We’re a group of individuals brought together from the fields of education, business and science, to share our passion for maths and to help everyone understand why having good everyday maths skills is important – whatever your age, interests or career aspirations. The initiative was established by the...
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