NRICH at the 2022 Cambridge Festival

As part of the Cambridge Festival 2022, members of the NRICH Team presents a number of live online interactive workshops. Here are links to the resources they introduced, and to some suitable follow-up resources.
 

Mathematical Explorers

For 9-11 year olds

You can watch the recording of the webinar below:

These are the problems that were introduced to 9-11 year-olds:

Less is More
Seeing Squares
Got It

Similar problems can be found in the selection of Games and Puzzles we published last summer, and in our Be a Mathematician! collection.

Thinking Mathematically

For 11-14 year olds

You can watch the recording of the webinar below:

These are the problems that were introduced to 11-14 year-olds:

Fruity Totals
Charlie's Delightful Machine
Factors and Multiples Game
The Number Jumbler

Similar problems can be found in the selection of Games and Puzzles we published last summer, and in our Thinking Mathematically collection.

The Trouble with Quizzles

For 15-17 year-olds

You can watch the recording of the webinar below:

Here is a summary of the ideas from the webinar, with some extra explanations about cobweb diagrams.

Here are the slides from the webinar.

Links to resources used in the webinar

• Logistic map with sliders
• Logistic maps with input box for k
• Logistic map with three populations
• Geogebra cobweb diagram

Links to further reading/watching

• Plus maths article on the logistic map
• Royal Institution Christmas lecture by Professor Marcus du Sautoy. At about 17 minutes in there is an example of where small changes in initial conditions can make a big difference, and at about 24 minutes in there is a discussion about lemmings and a demonstration of how the logistic map works with some human-lemmings.
• Numberphile video where Ben Sparks talks about the logistic map and the Feigenbaum constant.
• Two books on Chaos (that Claire read when she was in Yr13) are Chaos by James Gleick and Does God Play Dice? by Ian Stewart. Both of these books contain a section on the Logistic Map.
• This list of books contains recommendations for sixth-formers (and everyone else interested in maths), which covers lots of different maths topics, including Chaos.
• An article about Mary Cartwright one of the founders of chaos theory
  
   

How to lose $1 billion: technology's most expensive mistakes

For ages 14 to adult

You can watch the recording of the talk below:

In the session, we explored the importance of valuing our number sense (and avoiding some expensive mistakes!).

Primary-aged learners can develop their number sense by exploring these activities:

A Flexible Approach to Calculation

Secondary students can develop their estimating skills using these activities:

Does This Sound About Right?

Ages 14 years and upwards can challenge their estimating skills with this selection of tasks:

More or Less

Teachers may be interested in our collections of resources linked to the different areas of the curriculum. The resources have been chosen because they are ideal for developing subject content knowledge as well as mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills:
Primary
Secondary
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