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
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
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.
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.
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
Use your code cracking skills to work out the punchlines to five Christmas cracker jokes that have been encrypted as secret messages.
You can also have a go at encrypting your own secret messages, using our Cryptography resource developed by the Open University, with five different ciphers to choose from.
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.
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)
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.
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?
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!
Today you'll need to get your thinking caps on again - fill the squares on the grid with the correct colours, with the help of the coordinates, to reveal our festive mystery picture!