On Wednesday 5th March, a group of twenty nine Year 11 and Sixth Form students travelled to Newcastle in search of Mathematical Inspiration for further studies and possible future careers. Whilst the Maths department were, typically, quite excited and looking forward to going to see a series of Maths talks at The Theatre Royal, the students had a little more trepidation. However, once they had been, and realised that they weren’t going to have Mathematical formulae thrown at them for three hours, or that they themselves were not going to have to sit and do three hours of Maths questions, opinions were soon changed.
The speakers were part of the Maths Inspiration team, and with humour and audience interaction they kept the students entertained, relating Maths to real life situations and careers. They went from Fermi problems on the back of an envelope, to engineering and building stadium roofs, to killer insects and prime numbers. All of this was presented by the very amusing Matt Parker – also known as a ‘stand-up Mathematician’.
Whilst it was a fun day out, our hope is that it has given the students a boost in the run up to the exams, and perhaps inspired them to take their studies further.