Numbers play a huge part in all of our lives. Being confident with numbers prepares students for life.
At Natspec, we want students at all our colleges to be numbers people. This is why we support National Numeracy Day. Our Maths Week challenge celebrates the work our colleges do with their students, embedding maths skills across the curriculum, enabling them to become confident with numbers.
There are so many daily tasks that involve numbers; we use them every day. Students from The Orpheus Centre have produced the following video, illustrating all the ways numbers are essential to our lives.
During Maths Week, we saw so many different ways students use their maths skills in a variety of creative ways. Within the shortlisted entries we saw students use GPS location to draw shapes, measuring of surfaces, cost calculations, cutting things to the correct size, pattern making, and so much more.
All the ways maths is useful
Creating an organised garden requires a variety of maths skills that you may not have thought about. Students counted and sorted plants into groups to create equalised displays. Beds have to be measured out accurately and divided using fractions to create spaces. And if you’re checking up on the health of your plants, you might want to measure them to see how tall they’ve grown.
Many of our colleges run student enterprise programmes, requiring students to accurately price and cost the things they make. They also help run the shops, which means they have to count out floats and provide members of the public with accurate change for their transactions – a very important task to be accurate in.
The kitchen is another place where maths skills are on full display. Whether it’s weighing out ingredients, adjusting recipe quantities, or cutting fruit and vegetables in half, maths is constantly required in the kitchen.
We need Maths every day of our lives. Being maths confident enables young people to progress and is such a valuable skill in their journey to independence. We’re proud that all our colleges do such fine work with their students to enable them to be confident and comfortable using maths.
And if you’re looking to be numbers confident, just like our students, take the National Numeracy Challenge.