Have Fun with Maths

This is a collection of resources for P5-S3 students. The resources focus on strategy games and include explanatory videos, a range of puzzles, and some tips for teachers/educators.

"Have Fun with Maths" is a workshop we have successfully run in many local primary and secondary schools. 

After Maths Week 2019, we decided to make this workshop into a collection of online resources for schools, community centres, families or individuals.

The resources include some explanatory videos, a wide range of games and puzzles targeting different levels and abilities, and some tips for teachers and educators.

The workshop is suitable for P5-S3 students, and focuses on some strategy games. It is aimed at developing problem solving, as well as showing the fun and creative side of mathematics. The workshop also shows some real applications of mathematics, beginning with the study of transport networks.

The games and puzzles do not require any prior mathematical knowledge, hence they are suitable for all ages.

Overview

The document below contains an overview of the workshop with tips on how to use the resources.

Explanatory Videos

You can access the videos clicking on the links below, and use them to guide you through the workshop.

If you encounter difficulty playing the embedded videos below, you can access the videos via the YouTube playlist here: Have Fun with Maths - YouTube

Introduction
Rules of the Games and First Examples
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Where is the Maths?
What's the Point?

The Games

The Shannon switching game is a strategy game for two players. The game can be played on different diagrams. Below are the general rules of the game, and a range of diagrams to play.

Rules of the games (154.47 KB / DOCX)
Rules of the games (671.49 KB / PDF)
Game 1 (302.48 KB / PDF)
Game 2 (296.24 KB / PDF)
Game 3 (314.62 KB / PDF)
Game 4 (329.67 KB / PDF)
Game 5 (384.82 KB / PDF)
Game 6 (375.07 KB / PDF)
Game 7 (336.56 KB / PDF)
Game 8 (333.04 KB / PDF)
Game 9 (336.36 KB / PDF)
Game 10 (339.89 KB / PDF)
Make Your Own Game (307.61 KB / PDF)

 

Transport networks

Below are some mathematical exercises in the context of designing transport networks.

Flight Paths (551.17 KB / PDF)
Flight Paths- Solution (591.83 KB / PDF)
National Rail (358.63 KB / PDF)
National Rail- Solution (363.71 KB / PDF)
Underground Maps (1.25 MB / PDF)
Underground Maps- Solutions (178.01 KB / PDF)

 

Give us your feedback

If you have used the resources, please give us your feedback! It will be really useful when it comes to developing further resources for the future.

 

This project has been funded by the University of Edinburgh and Maths Week Scotland small grant fund.

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