It was a cold start to the morning for six young people who arrived at Leicester station ready to venture to Birmingham for a packed day of maths and science inspiration.
Maths Inspiration is a national programme of interactive maths lecture shows for 14-17 year olds, which gives them the chance to experience the UK's most inspiring maths speakers live in theatres, presenting mathematics in the context of exciting, real-world applications.
The show’s compere was hilarious and introduced presenters who variously performed live experiments and explored numbers in the news related to politics, helping to raise the awareness of the young audience of political news and encouraging them to question and understand data to help them make more informed choices.
Professional mathematicians from Loughborough University and University of Bath showed how mathematical modelling could assist in dealing with worldwide emergencies and the show concluded with Ben Sparks, who explored the Greek philosophers and mathematicians, such as Pythagoras and the link to irrational numbers, spirals and circles and ended the show with a song.
After a short lunch stop the group took a refreshing walk to Birmingham’s Think Tank Science Museum. Outside, there was a religious celebration for the Sikh community taking place where the group were able to sample foods and ask questions about the celebration and add to their learning.
Once in the museum, the group explored the different sections from recycling right to through engineering, exploring the science behind each one, but particularly enjoying the talking robot who gave the Virtual School a high five!
The route back to station went through the Birmingham Christmas Market where the young people enjoyed the festive spirit with all the seasonal lights, smells and decorations. All the young people attending the trip did exceptionally well: A super day out!