Zoe Griffiths discussed 'Numbers in the News', underscoring how misleading statistics can be, especially in politics. For example, the use of visual representations such as deceptive charts in a political campaign - this eye-opening information encourages us to be more cynical and question the media we consume. More can be found on Zoe and her interests at Think Maths : https://think-maths.co.uk/ 

Katie Steckles, who participated and was a champion on the BBC quiz show 'Only Connect', and is also a columnist in the 'Maths of Life' magazine, introduced the prevalence of maths in our everyday lives. She highlighted the various curvatures of food, such as the positive curvature of an orange, the negative curvature of a Pringle and the zero gaussian curvature of pizza! To discover more, have a read of her articles in her magazine. 

We even considered maths in niche subjects, such as the maths of juggling! Led by Colin Wright, he explored patterns and predictions through juggling. As we saw expert juggling tricks such as juggling 5 balls at once, we learnt how the notation system involved concepts such as Pascal's triangle! To learn more about juggling and other surprising patterns in maths, have a look at https://solipsys.co.uk/.  

Overall, it was a wonderful experience - invigorating our passion for maths, helping us discover it in our everyday lives! Others also agreed, stating: 

"It helped me enrich my studies and improve my problem-solving skills!" and

"It piqued my curiosity about the different applications of maths." 

By Shara - Year 12