The goal of this project was to give primary school students from a gifted and talented mathematics program an inspiring visit to The University of Nottingham. Showing them a glimpse at the possibilities of mathematics, through a range of talks, a tour of the university, a poster workshop and an opportunity for them to present their posters.  

In September 2015 I started working with group of gifted and talented primary school students aged 9-11 at Lady Bay Primary School. http://www.ladybay.notts.sch.uk  We worked on a variety of mathematical topics and it very quickly became clear that these students were extremely bright and able. I wanted to get to know them a little better so made a questionnaire with questions such as "What is your favourite hobbies?" and "What do you want to do when you are older?". Hidden in these questions were a few questions about mathematics. I asked what they thought of the subject and when they think mathematics could be useful in the 'real' world. While there was a range of views on mathematics as a subject; everything from "I hate maths because it is boring" to "Maths is my favourite subject because I like puzzles", one thing which was consistent in their responses was how they viewed the application of mathematics. Every single student said they would use maths in reference to homework, paying for something or working out the change they needed. This is what has inspired this 'Mathematics in the World' event. The goal of the project was to show the students an inspiring wide range of exciting possibilities and applications of mathematics. 

Later in the day the children had a tour of the university.- highlights of this included the Mathematics building, campus grounds, David Ross Sports centre (Including the new climbing wall which is a favourite hobby of many of the children). We then went to the students union where the students got the opportunity to meet and talk to students union offers who talked to them about the extra curriculum activities available at universities, everything from sports and volunteering to magic society. We finished the tour at the George Green library to show the children all the facilities and books available and the working environment students study in. This children took this part of the tour very seriously and quietly observed the students working. They then received a mathematics workbook each which I had earlier left with the librarian so they could experience checking their own book out of a university library. The children were very inquisitive about the different subjects and opportunities university life has to offer. 

We then returned to our main work room where the children had a well deserved juice and snack break. The majority of the break was spent with the children asking more questions about university life. Questions included everything from "Where do students live at university" to "My sister is studying at university to be a vet so is there lots of animals here?" and "Do you get given homework at university". It was wonderful to see how engaged and inquisitive the students were about university life. 

After the break it was time to get on with some work. The students were split into individual groups where they learnt about the application of mathematics in different fields: Medicine, Architecture, Computing, Engineering and The Police Force. The first half of the workshop was spent learning about how mathematics contributes to different tasks in each of those topics. The children were then given the task of putting their new knowledge into a poster to teach the rest of the students how mathematics is useful in their given topic. The groups had a variety of pens and craft materials and the freedom to design their poster how ever they wanted. All the students did themselves and school proud by putting a lot of effort into the posters. There was a clear divide in almost all the groups between students wanting to spend more time talking about the content of the poster and students wanting spend more time on the design of the poster. What was amazing to see if that all the students had really engaged with their topic and learnt a huge range of applications of mathematics, to the point that they were even able to suggest other uses of mathematics in their topics which had not specifically been given to them as examples. One group was working on the police force talked about the angles needed to be considered when using guns and driving cars. The group working on medicine started a conversation about the calculations needed for medications given to people of different sizes. The architecture group talked about the construction of bridges and the properties of materials. Each group was coming up with a huge range of suggestions, really using their imaginations to think deeply about different strategies and procedures.  

Finally the students had the task of presenting their work to an audience of the peers, their teachers, the head of the mathematics department, some PhD researchers, CDT managers and the speakers from throughout the day. We made this a formal presentation, each group would stand up and explain their poster to the group. The students were very brave and really embraced the challenge. Not only did they do a wonderful job of explaining their posters but they also engaged in each others posters asking questions and supporting each other. 

To complete the day I told the students to stand up as tall at they could and close their eyes. Then I told them to raise their left hand and wiggle it if they think they will use mathematics in the future, then raise their right hand and wiggle it if they think mathematics can do more than "adding up change in the sweet shop". This was an ongoing theme of the day to reflect on their original opinions of mathematics in the initial questions sheet. When I told the students they could open their eyes again they all had their hands high up and waving around and it finished the day on a real high note. 

It was a pleasure to work with the students and such a supportive school. 

Growing up I have always had a passion for mathematics, I have always enjoyed mathematics in education and logic games and problems outside of school. I believe mathematics is the fundamentals of so much of our world, there is so much that can be done with mathematics. When I started the math's ambassador program at Lady Bay primary school I was excited to share this enthusiasm with bright new students. Immediately it became clear that there was a significant percentage of the students who struggled with their mathematics and didn't feel particularly engaged or enthusiastic about the subject. It was possible with inventive and adaptive lesson planning to engage the students and make the mathematics lesson more fun, however this wasn't really addressing the underlying opinions the students had about the subject. It was either too hard, boring or not useful in the eyes of a lot of the students. This was something I wanted to address. I believe that more young people would be interested in the subject if it was taught with more relevant links to the world. Working though questions sheets and practising is an important part of learning mathematic skills however this should be combined with explanations of why those skills are important and how they can be used. Showing young people the possibilities of a subject provides more insentive to persist and overcome the hurdles of learning. I think this world math's day was a success and it was wonderful to see the students discussing and thinking about the subject in a positive way. It was also brilliant to give the students a little insight into university life. At such a young age university it a total mystery so it was wonderful to be able to answer some of their questions. In the future I would like to run similar projects to this with different schools to encourage more young people to get inspired and engaged with the subject and its possibilities.