posted by Carol Lyon, Schools & Learning Support Officer (STEM)

A fun day was had by all at the Primary Enterprising Maths Challenge. Teams of three P6/7 pupils from nineteen Angus primary schools participated.

The day began with a Poster Challenge in which teams were required to demonstrate their understanding of Shape. Schools were given the topic in advance and some pre-event planning was permitted. Excitement built as model sunflowers, viaducts, nets, photographs, pictures and diagrams appeared. Posters were judged on both mathematical content and presentation. This challenge was won by Langlands Primary School whose poster was jam packed with interesting facts about angles, symmetry and shape in nature and architecture.

Next came the ‘Team Challenge’. Each team was given 30 minutes to work together to solve as many mathematical puzzles as possible. This was followed by the ‘Head-to-Head Challenge’ where teams faced each other in three rounds of a blockbuster type strategy game. The day ended with the ‘Relay Challenge’. Team members took turns to collect a question for the team to answer, questions became progressively more challenging and sound judgements needed to be made about the length of time to spend on individual questions before moving on.

Special thanks must go to Langlands Primary School for hosting the event, to Dr Helen Martin, Aberdeen University, for setting the challenges and leading the day, and to Dr Chris Pritchard, chair of the Scottish Mathematical Council, for agreeing to fund the purchase of a shield and presenting it to the winning team. As overall winners, Murroes Primary will be the first Angus school to have their name engraved on this shield.

The team from Murroes Primary School with Dr Chris Pritchard

The winning poster designed by Langlands Primary School