Page 10 - Park Lane Press April 2022

10 Maths Activities April 2022 Secondary
Adventures in Shape and hunting for π or what happens when Maths gets Art-y
3. This term in maths all our Y6–Y9 students were very lucky to participate in a talk given by Zoe Griffiths from Maths Inspiration. Zoe, who is a well-known mathematician of Numberphile fame, took us on a whirlwind adventure into the world of shapes. From a double Mobius strip that transforms into a love heart to a non-Euclidean geometry where angles in a triangle can add up to 270° our minds were blown and squeals of excitement filled the Valdstejnska building.
1. To further explore the topic of Shape
we invited Ms Barlow to share with our KS3 classes her documentary ‘Between the Folds’. Did you know that that doc- umentary has been recently named by Prof. Steven Strogatz (visiting professor at MoMath) as one of the top 10 documenta- ries about mathematics? Well, imagine our luck when we discovered that among our midst, we have that film’s producer and co-director who not only can talk about the inspiration behind the documentary about paper folding but would also answer our inquisitive students’ questions.
4. So, the world of origami and the math- ematics behind it was a starting point to our own exploration of shape. It came in many different guises from paper dodeca- hedrons to hyperbolic paraboloid made out of – wait for it – Pringles! Maths lessons changed into busy art workshops for
a week and were only richer for it.
1. From fascinating shapes there was just one direction we could take – to a circle and a mathematical constant hiding when circumference is divided by diameter. Yes, you guessed that right – the one and only π and 14th March provided the perfect op- portunity for Park Lane to join thousands of schools worldwide in our celebration of the π day (3.14 = 03/14).
5. While the Maths Team dressed to impress, most maths classes joined the day’s festivities one way or the other. Miss Holmes’ Y10 class was busy solv- ing some seriously challenging maths problems faced by NASA scientists and engineers while Miss Nieffer’s and Miss Abbott’s classes joined the hunt for the π
outside with the help of chalk and a piece of string. Meanwhile Mr Placek was busy rallying the troops to get ready for the π reciting competition. Results? Our 2022 crowned champion Alain (7P) was able to recite an OUTSTANDING 143 digits!
9. Meanwhile, some computer science classes got busy generating the illusive mathematical constant with a little help of programming. Krystof M (Y12) used Python to compute more than 6000 digits while his fellow students discussed how to design a programme that allows you
to find your birthday in π Impressed? We most certainly were.
Maths Department