Bowland Maths aims to make maths fun for kids aged 11-14, aimed at developing thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. The maths emerges naturally as pupils tackle problems in various interesting and exciting problems. The topics range from the real world to pure fantasy.

These materials were designed to be used by a teacher in the classroom – but they include many problems and activities that you can try at home. You may need to read the teacher guide to discover what you are meant to do.

Assessment tasks

There are 35 short tasks, typically taking about 30 minutes. They are very different and some are much easier than others. These are easy to find; the ‘problem’ is usually on page 2 (and sometimes also 3), once you have opened the task. The rest of the material shows the work of other kids – which you might find interesting after you have had a go yourself.

Classroom projects

These are 26 extended projects; each is the equivalent of about 4 lessons. They are very different from each other and with a wide range of difficulty; there is often no one ‘right’ answer! They were designed for teachers to give to pupils, so it is not always obvious where the problem itself is - you may need to work out how to get to the problem itself – consider it another problem! Also you may need some explanation at the outset – but it’s all there in the materials. Some projects require team work, so either work with friends (remotely) or choose another project.

Many of the projects were written in 2008-2010 and some require a browser that supports Flash Player; in most popular desktop/laptop browsers this is still possible up to December, but you may need to unblock Flash in your security settings (ask Google!). The ones requiring Flash are marked in the index.

Professional development

This is a series of modules aimed at helping teachers with the materials. There are 7 video-based professional development modules. These are mainly intended for professional teachers, but If you are home-schooling children, you might look at the ‘Into the Classroom’ section of each module, where you will find a complete plan for an investigation lesson.