Royal Institute Mathematics Masterclasses

Over the course of two Saturdays in March (but with much preparation in advance), I helped organise, present, and deliver two Royal Institute Mathematics Masterclasses to around a hundred enthusiastic Year 8 students from around the region. The first session masterclass focused on waves and music and was organised by me and fellow PhD students in the maths department. The second was centred around energy and sustainability, and the work was completed by myself and my supervisor, Dr Tristan Pryer.

The masterclasses were a great opportunity to gain experience in designing and planning outreach material at a high-level and trying to hold the attention of 13-year-olds (which is not easy, let me tell you!). The style of talking was much more interactive than previous presentations I’ve given because of this, and it was nice to be able to present in a slightly different environment (with delightfully unpredictable questions fired away at any time).

The project was also just really fun and gave me the chance to bring in some practical work to my office in the form of building rubber band cars for an experiment in the sustainability masterclass. My office mates were also heavily invested in the performance of these cars (or lack thereof…). In the end though they did better than anticipated, and it was great to see the kids engaging with the mathematical concepts and practical activities.
Overall, I would recommend anyone who is interested in outreach to get involved with these kinds of programmes, and I look forward to the next time!