Masterclasses in hands-on mathematics offered by the Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus
Updated: 6.10.17
Topics available
| Figurate numbers | Year 5/6 | Year 8/9 |
| Moiré patterns | Year 5/6 | Year 8/9 |
| Polyhedra | Year 5/6 | Year 8/9 |
| Scaling | Year 5/6 | Year 8/9 |
| Surfaces | Year 8/9 | |
| Symmetry | Year 5/6 | |
| The cube’s symmetries | Year 8/9 | |
| People maths | Year 5/6 | Year 8/9 |
| Mobility | Year 8/9 | |
| Soap films | Year 5/6 | Year 8/9 |
| Mystic rose | Year 6/7 | Year 9/10 |
| Archimedes’ best ideas | Year 8/9 | |
| Experiments in projective geometry | Year 8/9 | |
| Perspective drawing | Year 5/6 | |
| Finding the one stone | Year 9/10 |
Organising a Masterclass
These workshops are designed to occupy 30 children for a whole morning (2 x an hour and a quarter).
Contact Paul Stephenson by email on pstephenson1@me.com, to find out more.
For these workshops we charge only travel and accommodation expenses.
Session planning
Through 20 years on the road with the Circus itself we have found that children most enjoy hands-on tasks where there is a creative dimension. Where possible, the sessions are therefore constructed with a prescriptive and a creative component.
You may be consulting the session notes for several reasons and with different ages of child in mind. Though we suggest a particular age group for the activity, this is only because those are the groups we ourselves have dealt with. The topics and the apparatus serving them can be used over a wide age and ability range. The pencil-and-paper mathematics, generally pitched at KS3-4, is distinguished from the experimental work and may be lifted out wholesale for classroom use – whether following a workshop session or not. In isolation it provides, at the least, meaningful bookwork.
Touring exhibitions
Individual stations covering these and many other topics are to be found in the touring exhibitions described on our website. Indeed, most of the activities which find their way into our workshops are tried out there first. As time goes on, we hope to develop new workshops.
