Dino Maths 2023: A Roar-ing Success across Norfolk 

On November 15th and 16th the Sir Isaac Newton Maths Outreach team and the University of East Anglia Maths Outreach team came together to run two days of roar-some maths activities for year four pupils. Primary schools from across Norfolk including those in the Inspiration Trust attended the event to experience maths in a whole new environment. 

Part of Maths Week England 2023, this event was a wonderful experience for children to get involved in maths with a different approach to classroom teaching. Such events hope to inspire the next generation of mathematicians and to provide opportunities for children to gain confidence in their maths skills and abilities. 

Nicola Coe, Director of Maths at Inspiration Trust said: 

“Pupils and adults alike were excited to take part in the dino-day activities. It was brilliant to work with the university to design and deliver some great maths activities, from comparing heights of dinosaurs, categorising dinosaurs and sorting numbered eggs. Thank you to all the staff who made this incredible event such a success and thank you to all pupils for their interest and engagement.“ 

Twenty-one schools attended the sessions across the two days, with over 180 pupils in total! Each day was filled with dinosaur-themed maths activities, ranging from planning a dinosaur park to sorting dinosaurs into Venn diagrams. Along the way dinosaur knowledge was combined with maths and pupils learnt about unique features of dinosaurs whilst cementing key knowledge such as coordinates, types of numbers and estimation. 

Undergraduate Maths students from the University of East Anglia delivered the session on Dinosaur Park planning, alongside volunteer students from Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form who worked as student helpers and ensured smooth running over the two days. 

Tom Marjoram, Maths Outreach Lead said: 

“It was wonderful to see the students so enthusiastic about taking part in the maths activities throughout the day. We can’t wait to see even more schools join us again next year!“ 

Whilst working their way through different activities pupils were also given a booklet to complete on their journey. They were tasked to find hidden letters in each activity that spelt out a dinosaur-themed word (Fossil) and this was exchanged for a goodie bag at the end of each day.