Edinburgh Maths Circle
The Edinburgh Maths Circle is an opportunity for children aged 5 to 16 and their families to join us for a couple of hours of fun and stimulating hands-on mathematics.
We are currently hosting both in-person and online Maths Circles, to accommodate different needs.
Our next in-person Maths Circle will take place on 24 February 2024, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm at James Clerk Maxwell Building. The event is free to attend and no booking is required. You do not need to join from the start or stay till the end. You can just drop in and stay as little or as long as you wish.
Further information about our in-person Maths Circles can be found below by expanding the tab "In-person Maths Circles".
The date of our next Virtual Maths Circle will be announced soon. Please expand the tab "Online Maths Circles" below to find out more about them.
To be notified about upcoming events (either online or in-person), please join our mailing list. Expand the tab below to find out how.
If you would like to be notified of future Maths Circle events (online or in person), you can subscribe to the Maths Circle mailing list. To do that, please send an email to sympa@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk with no subject, and text:
SUBSCRIBE edinburgh-maths-circle Name Surname QUIT
You will then receive an automatic email, asking you to confirm your subscription.
If you need any further information, please contact Will Reynolds by email (will.reynolds@ed.ac.uk).
Our next Virtual Maths Circle will take place sometime in 2024.
A Virtual Maths Circle is a one-hour long live workshop for children aged 7-14 and their family, taking place on Zoom. Prior to the online event, a selection of Maths problems is sent out to participants.
Participants are encouraged to try some of the problems in advance. During the virtual event participants are able to join different e-rooms, where Maths Circle hosts work with the participants to explain solutions to the problems.
Participants can ask questions via the chat, listen in as the host talks about ways to think about the problem, and then move to a different e-room if they want to try a different problem.
To facilitate interaction and better tailor the activities, our Virtual Maths Circle is split into two slots, one for 7-11 years old and one for 11-14 years old.
Each of the slots is one hour long. You are welcome to attend either of the slots, or both, according to your preference and the age of the children. The event is free to attend, but booking is required, via Eventbrite.
For safeguarding reasons, we require that each minor is supervised by a parent/guardian/responsible adult at all times during the online event.
Check back in February 2024 for links to book your place at our next Virtual Maths Circle.
Our next in-person Maths Circle will take place on 24 February 2024, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, at James Clerk Maxwell Building. For information on how to find the building, please expand the tab "How do I get there" below.
The (in-person) Edinburgh Maths Circle is a free drop-in session where children aged 5 to 16 and their families can join in with exciting mathematical activities, games and puzzles. Students and members of staff from the School of Mathematics are on hand to help out, light refreshments are provided.
The event is free and there is no need to book a space. You can just drop in and stay as little or as long as you like.
To get an idea of the kind of activities you'll be able to have a go at, take a look at some of the following, courtesy of NRICH.
- Help the little monkey look after his peaches in Peaches Today, Peaches tomorrow.
- Race against time in the Stop the Clock game.
- Solve the famous Tower of Hanoi puzzle.
Below are quotes from participants to previous Maths Circles:
It makes maths seem like something that you can do for fun.
Great to be back. Lovely helpers. Fun maths puzzles.
Please note that for safeguarding purposes, we ask that all participants are accompanied by a responsible adult.
The (in person) Edinburgh Maths Circles take place in the James Clerk Maxwell Building at the University of Edinburgh's King's Buildings campus. Signs will direct you from the entrance to Room 3217, and helpers will be on hand too. Information about travelling to the James Clerk Maxwell Building can be found here; please note additionally that parking within the King's Buildings campus is unrestricted at weekends.
The Edinburgh Maths Circle has been an immensely popular event over the past few years. In 2018, thanks to funding from the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust and Edinburgh City Council, we have begun a programme to spread the Maths Circle initiative widely across Scotland.
Our aim is to loan our resources out to schools/communities and provide training and support so teachers/educators can host their own Maths Circle events at their schools or in their local communities.
Borrow our resources
In the past years we have produced two boxes of resources, one for primary schools and one for early secondary schools. Each box contains a selection of about thirty problems, with accompanying hands-on resources. We are able to lend the resources to all Scottish schools FREE OF CHARGE. Each school can keep the resources for about a week and use them as appropriate.
If you are interested in borrowing our resources please email mathscircle@maths.ed.ac.uk.
Attend our workshops for educators
Would you like some guidance on how to use the resources? So far we have run more than fifteen workshops (both in person and online) aimed at sharing our resources with school teachers and giving them advice on how to use them in the classroom.
During these workshops, we give a brief introduction to our Maths Circles, then we explore some of the resources we use. We also discuss how such resources can be used in the classroom and can spark curiosity and help children develop their mathematical thinking.
Below you can find slides and handouts from one of our previous (in-person) workshops.
The Edinburgh Maths Circle was inspired by the Cambridge Maths Circle, and many of the activites we use are kindly provided by NRICH. We would like to thank both NRICH and the organisers of the Cambridge Maths Circle for their support in making the Edinburgh Maths Circle a reality.
The Edinburgh Maths Circle is kindly sponsored by Rathbones Investment Management and the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust. Thanks to their contribution, we have an improved collection of resources, a new and improved poster, and better quality refreshments.
