Primary Maths Masterclass for Gifted Mathematicians

Date: Tuesday 2 March 2010

The first in our series of Primary Maths Masterclasses for children gifted in Mathematics was held last Saturday morning here at St Edmund’s, organised by Mr Reames (Head of Maths). Attended by 21 Year 5 and 6 pupils from nine different primary and prep schools in the Canterbury area, including St Edmund’s Junior School, these Gifted and Talented mathematicians spent the morning investigating a number of interconnecting concepts all revolving around the concept of fractals.

The children started by making perfect equilateral triangles using only a blank sheet of paper: no rulers, pencils, compasses or protractors allowed!

Then they played the Chaos Game which led to the creation of Sierpinski Triangles. Finally, the session was all wrapped up with some investigation into Pascal’s Triangle. There are useful articles on Wikipedia for those interested to find out more about Sierpinski and Pascal’s Triangles.

Many thanks to Amy Hooker from the Royal Institution of Great Britain for leading Saturday’s session. We are looking forward to Session 2 in March.