Learning Resources

external

Escape from Lochdonia Manor

Best suited for Second and Third Level

Use your logic, numeracy skills and your wits to escape Lochdonia Manor.

Work your way through the rooms, find the codes and defeat the guard!

Created by the Scottish Mathematical Council

external

Maths Week Scotland Daily Challenge

Best suited for Second and Third Level

Every year during Maths Week Scotland, BBC Bitesize shares a short daily puzzle set by the Scottish Mathematical Council. Perfect for a daily 'satert' during Maths Week, or for any other time of the year. Check out the most recent challenges, or browse the archives for even more maths fun!

external

T.A.L.E.S.

Best suited for Second and Third Level

Welcome to T.A.L.E.S. – Thinking and Learning, Exploring, Solving which is a series of videos exploring mathematics through tales and interdisciplinary links, created by The Scottish Mathematical Council for Maths Week Scotland 2024.

Each video is accompanied by a brief description to support planning and preparation. Most suited to upper primary/early secondary – CfE second into third level.

external

Scottish Football Association Resources

Best suited for Second and Third Level

For our 2023 theme Maths in Motion, Maths Week Scotland collaborated with the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to highlight the impact of Maths & Numeracy on the world of football. Resources include the maths in Scottish Cup Goals, Match Stats, and Match Itineraries, covering a range of different maths concepts. 

The SFA also collaborated with Twinkl to create some free, downloadable Maths Week Scotland resources. 

external

Create an Economy

Best suited for Second and Third Level

During Maths Week set up a classroom economy system with your class, to teach children financial responsibility through fun, experiential learning.

external

Maths Zines

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

A zine is essentially a ‘little magazine’, created from one sheet of A4 paper, where learners can share their creative ideas. This can be done in class over a series of lessons, in groups or as part of a homework activity. Find out more about zines, how they fit into the curriculum and ways you can bring them into your classroom.

Please note: the examples included in this resource are aimed at Secondary Schools, but creating maths zines is a fun activity for all levels.

external

Looking and Listening for the Beauty in Maths

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

This series of five videos focuses on the mathematics in Art and Music. Topics covered include rhythm, pentatonic scales, tiling and tessellation, and the works of Piet Mondrian.

Each video is accompanied by a brief description, any web-links referred to in the video and a list of key vocabulary to support planning and preparation.

Created by the Scottish Mathematical Council for Maths Week Scotland 2022

Women in Maths

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

Maths Week Scotland interviewed women for whom maths is at the core of their job. Whether it is statistics, bridges or budgets these women rely on maths every single day.

Kids (and adults!) often struggle to identify why maths is useful unless they want to be a maths teacher or banker. Watch these videos together and talk about how maths is important in a huge range of jobs - whatever your interest!

external

Learn with Will

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

Learn with Will is a video series of Maths, Science and English. Join Chris and Will on their magical adventures as they bring stone circles to life and summon magical forest spirits, to help you learn about measuring circles.

In Bringing Magic Circles to Life, you'll learn how to measure different parts of a circle, like the radius, diameter, circumference, and area. And in Summon Magical Forest Spirits, you’ll learn how to measure more parts of a circle, like the arc and sector. And there's worksheets to download too, if you want to keep practicing.

Content by Learn with Will

Wild Maths: DYW Online Talks

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

To celebrate Maths Week Scotland 2025, DYW Live held a day of live webinars on the theme of 'wild maths', featuring:

  • Using maths to discover nature! with Elli from NatureScot
  • Maths at the Zoo? with the Discovery and Learning Team from Edinburgh Zoo

A pre recorded session suitable for secondary learners is also available, where Xavi from Industrial Light & Magic explains how they use Maths in the creative sector to produce high quality VFX and CGI in films such as The Mandalorian, Pirates of the Carribean and Jurassic Park, with a particular emphasis on generating artificial weather.

Replays of all talks are available to watch on the e-sgoil website.

University of Edinburgh Strategy Games

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

This collection of resources for P5 to S3 students by the University of Edinburgh focuses on strategy games and some applications of Mathematics to transport networks. The aim is to develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as exploring the creative and fun side of mathematics. All resources, including explanatory videos, a range of games and puzzles, and tips for teachers/parents can be found via the link below.

Produced in partnership with Maths Week Scotland

external

School Treasure Hunt

Best suited for Second and Third/Fourth Level

Anderston Primary School has created two treasure hunts which can be adapted to most schools as the locations are generic places like the school office and gate etc. Choose from:

  • a traditional treasure hunt for roughly P5 – S1

  • a musical, mathematical, digital treasure hunt for roughly P7 – S2

external

How to Write a Fibonacci Poem

Best suited for Second Level and above

Explore the connection between maths, poetry and nature with your class, by writing Fibonacci Poems!

Popularised by Gregory K. Pincus, these poems follow a syllable structure based on the Fibonacci sequence.

external

How to Write a Pi-ku

Best suited for Second Level and above

Traditional Japanese haiku consist of seventeen phonetic units, which are arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern. For a mathematical twist, a pi-ku is a poem that follows the form of a haiku, but instead of the 5-7-5 haiku pattern, the syllables in a pi-ku follow the number of digits in the mathematical constant pi (π). So, instead of 5-7-5, a pi-ku would follow the pattern 3-1-4. You can also expand beyond three lines, by continuing to follow the digits of pi. Bring literacy and maths together, by writing some pi-ku with your class. 

external

Royal Institution Maths Activities

Best suited for  Second Level and above

Soap bubbles, paper folding, computers and bridges are all inspiration for these Primary School maths activity ideas from the Royal Institution.

external

Maths Tales RPG

Best suited for Second Level and above

This RPG game about maths in Ancient Egypt was developed by Daisy Abbott from Anderston Primary Parent Council, for Maths Week Scotland 2024. It covers various maths topics.

external

Conduit Resources

Best suited for Third/Fourth Level

Conduit: Connecting Knowledge and Skills provides a pathway through Secondary learning whilst allowing leaders to modify resources to suit their students' needs. The Conduit team has been working in collaboration with Maths Week Scotland to produce a wide range of resources linking to and informed by Curriculum for Excellence, which support teaching and learning maths. These free resources include talking cards, activity sheets and classroom ideas to get pupils talking about and engaging with maths.

external

Exploring Maths and Topical Science through Botanical Expeditions

Best suited for Third Level

Explore Maths and Topical Science through botanical expeditions past and present. Take a global citizenship approach to learning about speed, distance and time - and apply this approach to Topical Science too.

The videos and tasks use historic and contemporary examples of expeditions undertaken to add to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's collection of 3 million pressed plant samples stored in its Herbarium.

These resources can be used within Third Level Maths and Third Level Science/Biology - or together as part of an interdisciplinary learning project.

The resources were created in partnership with Scotdec and made possible by the Maths Week Scotland Large Grants Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

video

Roman Hackers

Best suited for Third/Fourth Level

This resource are aimed at lower secondary pupils and helps learners explore the role of maths in the hacksilver discovered from the Roman empire.

Watch the video to find out how Museum Curator Dr Fraser Hunter uses maths to uncover the stories behind these hacked up treasures. Learn more with our Roman Hackers resource (download below), which guides pupils to create and hack up their own silver vessels.

Created by National Museums Scotland for Maths Week Scotland 2021

external

Issue to action: Maths

Best suited for Third/Fourth Level

These resources offer maths teams an opportunity to take an applications approach within the BGE phase. The materials explore 3 broad themes – climate change, gender equality and migration – with 2 sets of activities for each theme supported with a PowerPoint presentation.

Created by Scotdec