Phil Moxon, AC for Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland
Our free Christmas Lecture for Year 10 students is returning for 2018. The annual event was started in 2010 after the Further Maths Network was asked to organise a maths lecture as part of Teesside University’s Inspirational Lectures Programme. Attracting 250+ students each year, it remains a very popular event for schools. It is now the only remaining Christmas lecture at the university and continues to be organised by the AMSP.
Past presenters have included Matt Parker, Colin Wright, Steve Mould, Tom Button, Emily Grossman and Ben Sparks, many of whom have delivered lectures over a period of years by public demand. The topics have ranged from ‘Maths in the Simpsons’, ‘Maths and Music’, ‘From Google to Games’, ‘Maths in the Movies’ and ‘Creation of Number’.
One teacher comment that proves students have taken something away from the fun education talks: “The next day [the students] were still talking about the guitar player who was missing two fingers, and how all of their rock songs had the perfect fifth with the distortion turned up.” Any idea who that could be?
This year’s event will take place on 12 December, with Ben Sparks and Zoe Griffiths presenting, and it again looks like a sell-out.