Welcome to Navigating Our World - a workshop developed by the Learning and Engagement Team at Dynamic Earth, with funding from Maths Week Scotland, to highlight the maths in the world around us.
In this self-led workshop you will cover an introduction to navigation; discuss the history and uses of latitude and longitude; visit Edinburgh’s One O’clock Gun and discuss the speed of sound; look at how satellite navigation works; and wrap it all up with a timeline of the entire history of navigation.
This workshop has been designed as an on-demand modular learning experience. Ideally suited for those studying at the third curriculum level (generally S1-3). The workshop consists of videos and activity packs. Please first read the 'Educator's Info PDF', which contains suggestions on how to deliver this workshop to your learners. Please also see the curriculum links document for how these activities will fit into the curriculum.
This workshop was developed for Maths Week Scotland 2021, and remains available online, for free and on-demand.
It comprises five videos interspersed with 4 PDF resource packs. These packs contain additional information and plenty of activities to complement the video content.
Some activities will need an outdoor space (a large hall will probably also work), but all are designed not to need any specialist equipment beyond pen, paper, metre rulers, tape measures, stopwatches, compasses, and bean bags/cones.
Some of the indoor activities will require downloading free software or apps, so please check your school’s IT will allow this.
The workshop could be run in one go as roughly a day’s worth of activities, or each video and supporting activity pack could be run as a single lesson.
Maths Week Scotland is back for 2026 with the theme Maths Matters. To celebrate our tenth year, we will have an extended gala week running over two weekends, from Saturday 19 to Sunday 27 September.
It is almost time for the RSPB Big Schools’ Bird Watch – the largest citizen science project for schools across the UK. Sign up to take part, from 6th January- 13th February 2026.
