Most of these sessions can be booked for delivery online or in person (at a venue of your choice); by individuals, groups, schools or other organisations. I’ll suggest a typical audience for each one but most can be adjusted to suit a much broader range. Please feel free to make contact to discuss the specific needs of your group.
A prerequisite for every session is openness to experiencing an enthusiastic, unashamed maths fan take you through some of the bits of history in which mathematics has shaped human understanding and development. The aim is not to blind you with science but to invite you in to a topic which is accessible and understandable, and to hopefully infect you with a little bit of my love for mathematics on the way.
The Mathematics of Measuring the Solar System
A series of four sessions covering some of the mathematics behind historical milestones on humanity’s journey to understand our place in the Universe.
For: KS 2 – 5, Adults
Full series: £600
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During these sessions there will be activities to complete (and most of these involve some maths), so whether online or in person it’s a good idea to have paper, pencil and a scientific calculator handy. Related suggested activities will also be provided which may (for example) be completed between sessions. Such activities are designed to extend the experience outside of the four sessions but their completion is not essential in order access successive sessions.
This series is most suited to students with some exposure to (but not necessarily mastery of) trigonometry, Pythagoras’ theorem, and algebraic functions and formulae, including rearranging equations. More important than this is an interest in Earth’s solar system and our place within it!
The course consists of four sessions:
- How to Measure the Earth
- From the Earth to the Moon
- Going ‘Round in Ellipses
- Transition
Each session lasts approximately 1 hour and can be delivered on any timescale (e.g. all in one day; every Thursday afternoon for 4 weeks).
General Cryptanalysis & Codebreaking Sessions
A five-session course following a mathematical journey through the history of codes & ciphers, focusing on understanding just some of the techniques behind making and breaking them.
For KS2 – 5, Adults
Full series: £600
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Each session begins with something to think about in the form of a transposition cipher before returning to themes building on those introduced in the previous session. There are quickfire activities and plenty of questioning interspersed with the occasional review where students add another tool to their Codebreakers’ Toolkit
This series is most suited to students with some pre-existing interest in secret messaging, a desire to learn more about the processes behind it, and a positive attitude towards mathematics at whichever level they are studying.
The course consists of five sessions:
- Monoalphabetic Ciphers
- A Powerful Weapon Against Monoalphabetic Ciphers
- Fighting Back Against Frequency Analysis
- Polyalphabetic to the Max
- Impossible?
Each session lasts approximately 1 hour and can be delivered on any timescale (e.g. all in one day; every Thursday afternoon for 5 weeks).
Building Your First Course in OpenLearn Create
An introduction to developing online educational courses using the Open University’s OpenLearn Create learning platform.
For: Adults
2 – 3 hours online: £200
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OpenLearn Create (part of the Open University’s OpenLearn) an online learning platform like FutureLearn or Coursera, except anybody can create and host their own courses at absolutely no cost. It’s developed, run and maintained by the Open University.
I wrote an online course on how to build your first OpenLearn Create course. This course is completely free to access and complete on your own, but if you’d like a helping hand to get started, I can help. I will run a 2-3 hour online workshop for your staff, during which they will begin to craft their first open online course. They will learn how to complete the initial setup for a course; how to structure an online course; how to include basic elements including text and imagery; and how to get started with the more interactive features including quizzes and glossaries.
The workshop can be tailored to more specific requirements, including if your staff already have a rudimentary understanding of the basics of OpenLearn Create and would like to go a little further.
The Rules
By booking a session or activity you confirm that you agree to the following rules, terms and conditions.
Whilst school age groups are discussed, this is more to do with relevance to expected coverage of subject matter (and, of course, life experience) by that age than it is to do with perceived difficulty (as mentioned, difficulty can be adjusted to suit different audiences) so most of these will be perfectly suitable for adult audiences as well as school groups.
Group sizes are flexible with the reminder that smaller groups will have a more personal and interactive experience whilst larger groups will necessarily receive more generic, less personalised delivery.
Online
- Pricing for each session includes online delivery at agreed times and in most cases will be the only charge on the invoice.
- Extra expenses may be incurred in special circumstances but only with prior agreement.
- No responsibility will be taken for network or connection issues at your end and and no discounts or refunds will be given, though rearrangement may be possible in some circumstances
- If network or connection issues are provably at my end I will offer the choice of moving the session to another time or a full refund.
- The nature of the beast is that network problems can occur at any time from any number of sources. It is good practice to ensure that you have a local alternative activity ready in case of unforeseeable outages! I am not responsible for this.
In Person
- Pricing for each session includes in-person delivery at a venue of your choice (arranged by you).
- Travel expenses (including mileage @45p per mile, parking charges and/or public transport costs as incurred) and accommodation costs as incurred will be added to the final invoice.
- Expenses can be shared between bookings (including bookings by separate organisations)
- In the event of a cancellation by me you will receive no invoice.
- In the event of a cancellation by you, you will be invoiced for all non-refundable expenses already incurred plus:
- 100% of the session fee if cancelled within 24 hours of the event.
- 50% of the session fee if cancelled within 48 hours of the event.
- 10% of the session fee if cancelled within 7 days of the event.
- I will abide by any rules or regulations required to visit the venue and work with the intended participants (e.g. Covid-19 measures, dress code, etc) as long as these are communicated to me explicitly and in good time for the event.