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Meteor children discover maths fun

Our University Meteor Maths Tour has been visiting schools to encourage children to have fun with numbers while learning.

The Meteor Maths Tour has taken place over a two weeks involving over 500 Year 6 pupils from 14 schools across the Tees Valley as part of the Meteor Programme STEM Integrated Education Strategy. This is funded by One North East, aimed at helping promote awareness of science, technology, engineering and mathematics with young people in the local area. Mathematician Paul Godding, who has over 20 years experience in teaching maths, led the maths workshops during the tour. He said: ‘Some children can be apprehensive about maths and put up barriers, so this helps them to build confidence and feel more comfortable using numbers.

Learning teamwork too ‘The children have been making lots of calculations during the event and are learning skills without even realising it. And along with the maths, they are learning teamwork and social skills too.’

Pupils at Middlesbrough Primary School School were among those visited by the tour. The children were set tasks and played board games with a numerical theme.

Marium Malik, aged ten, said: ‘The games using numbers really made me think and I have really enjoyed taking part. It will make me enjoy maths even more now.’

Kaleef Ahmed, also ten, said: ‘It was fun taking part and the games really made me concentrate. I enjoyed working out the answers.’

Newport Primary School teacher Jenny Barnbrook added: ‘We do a lot of game based learning and the children really enjoyed taking part, they didn’t even realise that they were learning.’

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