National Museum of Scotland20th Dec-10th JanAll dayFree
Finn Finity and the Great Christmas Maths Mystery is an interactive self-guided story set at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The story is a mystery, that the Maths Week Scotland mascot Finn Finity is trying to solve. Each short chapter includes a puzzles, encouraging a range of different maths and problem solving skills. Once solved, the puzzles will provide clues to eliminate suspects from a list. By the end of the story, there should only be one suspect left and you will have helped Finn to work out what happened and who did it!
At the end of the mystery, there is a certificate for successful super sleuths to download, and you can also enter in to a prize draw to win some Finn Finity goodies (the prize draw is open until Friday 10 January 2025).
How do I take part?
There are two ways to take part:
Online: You can take part online, from anywhere in Scotland (or the world!) You will find the instructions, and all the chapters and puzzles available for download on our Christmas Countdown page. Some of the puzzles have multiple versions, for different age and ability levels.
We have prepared a special version of the story for doing in person at the museum, which has fewer downloads and includes the simplified puzzle versions to make it easier to complete on the go.
What age is it for?
The story and puzzles were originally written for P5-P7, so roughly age 9 to 11, but younger and older children may enjoy them too. Families can do the puzzles together as a mixed age group.
How long will it take?
It depends a bit on how long you spend on the individual puzzles, but the whole story with all the puzzles will probably take you a couple of hours to complete. However, we have split it into three parts, so you can choose to spread it out over multiple museum visits. You can of course also choose to take breaks at any point in the story.
What will I need?
The Story - The story itself can be downloaded and read on a mobile device. The museum offers free WiFi so you don't need to worry about using up data. The story has been split in to three parts: Part 1 takes place on Level 1 of the Museum, Part 2 takes place on Level 3, and part 3 takes place on Levels 4-6.
The Puzzles - For the best experience we recommend printing off a full set of puzzles before your visit. However, if you want to reduce the amount of printing required, the puzzles are also included in the Story downloads and most of them can be done on screen with a notepad and pencil to help you. There are four puzzles that are difficult to complete on screen, so there is an alternative download available with just these four puzzles.
A copy of all the puzzle answers is also included so you can check the solutions.
The Suspect List - Print off a copy of this before visiting the museum.
A Notebook & Pencil - Something to write with and take notes will be helpful, especially if you are doing the minimal printing option.
A Museum Map - You can either pick up a map at the museum on arrival, or download our copy of the map which just includes the levels mentioned in the story (you don't need to print this off!)
Will I need to print anything off?
You will need to print off a copy of the Suspect List.
Most of the puzzles can be done on screen with a notebook and pencil, but there are four which are difficult to complete on screen so we recommend printing these too if you can (the "Puzzles (minimal set)" download below).
Please note: This is a self guided trail. Print outs of the puzzles are not available at the museum. You must do any necessary printing at home before your visit.
To celebrate Book Week Scotland, we are delighted to announce the finalists and winners of our Maths Tales story-writing competition, run in partnership with Read Write Count with The First Minister.
