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Maths Week at Work: Careers in Maths

Best suited for Third Level and above

A series of videos produced by the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Maths Week Scotland, where five Maths graduates working in different sectors explain how they use mathematics in their job. Each of them also challenges us with a puzzle which is somehow related to their work. A solution to each puzzle is also presented.

The videos, together with handouts and solutions to the puzzles can be found via the link below.

Produced by Francesca Iezzi and Aarol Films.

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Stats in the Wild

Best suited for Third Level and above

This set of bespoke evidence-based resources are for exploring statistics using outdoor maths, and includes three lessons: Creature Features, Wings and Things, and Flora Explorer.

The lesson resources can be done in any order and are suitable for students aged 11-16.

Produced by Dr Lucy Rycroft-Smith and Darren Macey as part of Maths Week Scotland 2025.

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Maths for Climate Change

Best suited for Third Level and above

Maths skills are at the heart of understanding climate change, understanding people’s responses to climate change and developing solutions – whether those are for preventing climate change, or adapting to it. Learn how you can use the Royal Meteorological Society new Climate Change Concept Tool, to support maths in the curriculum.

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The Role of Actuaries

Best suited for Third Level and above

Discover how problem solvers and critical thinkers unpick problems and tackle issues such as climate change and cyber risk, in this series of short videos.

Created by Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

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Online Talk: Code Breaking & Cryptography

Best suited for Third Level and above

Watch the replay of the Code Breaking and Cryptography interactive talk from Maths Week Scotland 2022. Join Katie Chicot and Vicki Brown on a whistle stop tour of historical codes, where you will learn to make and break codes and see how cryptography is used today.

Hosted by the Open University

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Online Talk: Using Statistics to Monitor Air Pollution

Best suited for Third Level and above

Using Statistics to Monitor Air Pollution - Around 30,000 deaths per year in the UK are linked to air pollution according to government figures. Around the UK, governments and local authorities are increasingly taking action to reduce air pollution levels through schemes which reduce vehicle emissions and encourage the use of public transport, cycling and walking. To target these interventions in the right areas, it is crucial that we can understand which parts of the country are most exposed to pollutants. This talk will explain how statistics is at the heart of this process.

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

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Online Talk: From lab to patient: how statistics shapes decisions in medical treatment

Best suited for Third Level and above

The decisions behind the medications we take are more complex than you might think. When we experience symptoms like a headache or earache, we might take over-the-counter medications or seek help from healthcare professionals. But have you ever wondered how they determine which medication to give you and how much?

This talk will explore how statistics helps us to make informed choices in healthcare and medicine, including concepts such as randomisation, control groups, and the difference between statistical and clinical significance in simple terms.

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

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Online Talk: From data to decisions: how AI & stats solve real-world problems

Best suited for Third Level and above

How does AI forecast the weather, diagnose diseases, and help with business decisions? The answer lies in the powerful partnership between statistics and AI. Together, they help us spot patterns, understand data, and make better decisions.  

In this interactive session for students aged 11–16, you will explore what AI really is – and look at real-world examples of how it’s being used today. Students will discover why statistics is essential for training AI algorithms, and how data helps machines “learn”.  

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

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Online Talk: Driving is a Risky Business

Best suited for Fourth Level and above

Road safety is vital for everyone. Whether we drive or cycle, catch the bus or walk, we are all affected by driving – and the policies surrounding it. How do we therefore decide whether people with long-term medical conditions should be offered driving licenses?

Dr Laura Bonnett, a medical statistician at the University of Liverpool and the Royal Statistical Society’s William Guy lecturer for 2020, will seek to answer this question for people who have had epileptic seizures. Maths concepts covered include probability, percentages, estimates and risk thresholds.

This talk was recorded during Maths Week Scotland 2020.

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Online Talk: Red Squirrel Conservation

Best suited for Fourth Level and above

Andy White (Heriot-Watt), whose research is focussed on applying mathematics to understand and manage wildlife systems, discusses the plight of red squirrels in the UK, how mathematical models were key tools in understanding the role of invasive grey squirrels, and how mathematics is being used to design forest management plans to conserve the remaining red squirrels in Scotland.

This virtual talk from Maths Week Scotland 2021 was hosted by Heriot-Watt University and International Centre for Mathematical Sciences

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Online Talk: Dandelion’s Halo

Best suited for Fourth Level and above

Cathal Cummins (Heriot-Watt), whose research focuses on fluid mechanics of swirls, encompassing problems in biology, renewable energy, and beer, discusses how equations predict the halo vortex and the implications for the flight of nature’s tiniest fliers.

This virtual talk from Maths Week Scotland 2021 was hosted by Heriot-Watt University and International Centre for Mathematical Sciences

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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