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Online Talk: How can statistics protect us against extreme sea levels resulting from climate change?

Best suited for Senior Level

Sea level rise and changes in weather conditions due to climate change have increased the risk of coastal flooding. It is increasingly important that we can accurately estimate sea levels to determine how high we need to build coastal defences such as sea walls. 

This talk discusses the importance of statistically modelling extreme events and demonstrate how this is fundamental in our fight against climate change. Using her sea level model as an example, PhD statistics student Eleanor D’Arcy presents some of the statistical techniques she uses that stem from topics students will have covered at school; and explains how her results will be used for upgrading coastal defences nationwide, to highlight the significance of statistical research in the real world. 

Part of the Royal Statistical Society's William Guy Lecture Series

Online Talk: Economic statistics and stupidly smart AI

Best suited for Senior Level

Our statistics are under pressure! It's harder to count the things that we mostly produce today, like tourists' hotel stays and business services, than it was to count the things we used to make, like crops and clothes.  This is Bad News as these "economic statistics" are part of our country's critical infrastructure, used to inform everything from how the government spends its money to whether men and women are paid equally well.  

 In this talk, data scientist Dr Arthur Turrell shows how clever use of AI can improve statistics and help us make sense of our nation. Amazingly, AI is itself built on maths, and this gives it superpowers when it comes to dealing with numbers.   

Part of the Royal Statistical Society's William Guy Lecture Series

Online Talk: Can I really believe that number? Statistics and Covid-19

Best suited for Senior Level

In this online talk, Emeritus Professor of Medical Statistics Mike Campbell looks at some unusual numbers given in the press relating to Covid-19, and whether we can believe them or not. He will show you how you can ask sensible questions about numbers to help you decide if the numbers are believable. 

The remainder of the talk will cover questions such as: how would you know how many cases of Covid-19 there were in the country? How do you know that people who died with respiratory symptoms had Covid-19?  How many deaths might have been caused by Covid-19 only indirectly, for example because people were reluctant to go to hospital during lockdown?  

Part of the Royal Statistical Society's William Guy Lecture Series

Family Maths Activities

Suitable for all levels

Browse our Family Activities section for more maths inspired arts & crafts, games and puzzles. Some are also suitable for the classroom, and others you may want to suggest to your pupils to try at home.

Halloween Maths Puzzles

Halloween Maths Puzzles

Download our free spooky puzzles to hone your maths skills - from counting and pattern recognition, to logical thinking and code cracking. With something for all ages.

Christmas Maths Activities

Suitable for all levels

We've pulled together all our resources from the past years of doing Christmas Holiday Countdowns - including games, puzzles, art and craft activities, and our Finn Finity Christmas Mystery puzzle story - to create a "Pick & Mix Your Own Countdown". Browse all activities via the link below.

>> Pick and Mix Your Own Christmas Holiday Countdown

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Roll-a-Snowflake Game

This open ended drawing game encourages number recognition and counting, and celebrates the symmetry of snowflakes. Discuss why the die has only even numbers, and where to place your symbols on the grid to keep your snowflake symmetrical

>> Download Roll-a-Snowflake Instructions

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Festive Lego Builds

Building with Lego is a great opportunity to incorporate a little maths in to your children's play time. How many bricks do they need of each colour? What size of bricks - 2x2 blocks, or 2x4? While they're having fun, they're already learning maths without even realising it.

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Baking Sugar Cookies

There are a multitude of maths skills involved in baking - from weighing, measuring and counting, to fractions, conversions, telling the time and more! Put your maths skills to the test as you bake our delicious sugar cookies! (gluten free, nut free, vegetarian)

>> Download Recipe Card

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Gingerbread Maths

In this simple counting activity with a seasonal twist, early learners can match the buttons to the gingerbread shapes to count from 1 to 5. The download also includes a bigger version of the template for younger children, so that bigger buttons or equivalent can be used.

>> Download Gingerbread Template

Note: Small parts can pose a choking hazard. Please supervise young children when doing this activity.

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Collaborative Drawings

In this collaborative drawing challenge, one person describes whilst the other draws. It’s not as easy as it sounds! You can use only shapes and directional words in your description. Why not have several people drawing at once and compare your pictures at the end – did you all draw the same thing?

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Sierpinski Christmas Tree

Get stuck in to some maths themed seasonal crafts with our Sierpinski Christmas tree! The Sierpinski triangle is a pattern of equilateral triangles that repeats again and again at different scales. This kind of pattern is called a 'fractal'. Our tree is a large pyramid made of smaller pyramids. Since a fractal can repeat endlessly, you can keep adding layers to build a tree as large as you want!

>> Download tetrahedron template

>> Download Sierpinski tree tutorial

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Design a Festive Jumper

Happy (belated) Christmas Jumper Day! If, like us, you didn’t get the memo that Christmas Jumper Day was a day early this year, you can have some festive jumper fun with today’s activity. Download our free activity sheet and design your own jumper. Can you give it a mathematical twist? How about adding some shapes, repeating patterns, tessellation or symmetry!

>> Download Festive Jumper Template

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Geometric Christmas Doodles

In this fun Christmas art activity, you need to create pictures just by colouring in squares - no extra diagonal or rounded lines allowed! Try our suggestions or create your own!

Bonus suggestion: If you are into cross stitch, you could also use these doodles as cross stitch patterns, with each square equalling one stitch.

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Seasonal Counting Books

It's the perfect time of year to cuddle down with a good book. With plenty of counting books for kids to choose from, it's also a great opportunity to include some maths in your seasonal story time.

What are your favourite seasonal books to read at this time of year?

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Tessellating Trees

A tessellation is an arrangement of shapes fitting together in a repeating pattern without gaps or overlapping. Download our template and fit together the tessellating trees to make one giant tree! The template includes three sizes of tree to choose from. This is a great activity to do with a group or class, or at a family gathering.

Tip: It’s easier to colour the trees in first and then cut them out.

>> Download Tessellating Trees Template

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Decorate-a-Tree Race

There’s two ways to play our Decorate-a-Tree game. In Best of 5, the player with the most points after five rounds wins. In First to 20, it’s the player to reach 20 points first.

For an extra challenge, try to reach 20 points exactly on your last throw – so if e.g. you have 17 points, you need to roll a 3 to win. If you roll a higher number, you’ll need to try again in the next round.

>> Download Tree Game Template

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Fraction Snowflakes

A calming art puzzle activity for the weekend. Cut out circles of different sizes from white paper, then cut some in to halves, quarters and eighths. Use the circle fractions to lay out snowflake patterns. Remember, snowflakes are symmetrical!

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Binary Code Ornaments

Today we’re making seasonal decorations with a mathematical twist – using binary code! Download our chart and create ornaments with festive words written in binary code. Binary code is a way to write numbers, letters and symbols using only 0 and 1. It is used in computer coding.

>> Download Binary Code Chart