Over five hundred school students aged seven to eleven, competed at Imperial yesterday for a maths quiz with a difference.

Mental Maths, hosted by the Outreach team on 4 July, is the first of its kind for the College, with students from five schools taking part in a morning of activities, designed to increase their interest in maths.

Children from St Mary Magdalene CE Primary School in Westminster as well as students from St Mary and St Pancras, St Mark’s, Emmanuel and St Paul’s Primary Schools - all based in Camden, had their fingers pressed on the buzzers for the game-show style maths quiz, which tested their multiplication, division and general numeracy skills.

Over five hundred school children took part in the event

Mental Maths was developed by Catherine Salvadore Paleotti, Assistant Headteacher and maths leader of learning at St Mary Magdalene’s, who approached Imperial to host the event.

Annalisa Alexander, Acting Head of Outreach, who welcomed the students to Imperial said: “Keeping children enthusiastic about maths at an early stage is vitally important if we are to ensure that enough students go on to study maths or science at university. This event is an effective way in which we can make the subject fun and enjoyable and by hosting it at the College the children have also been able to get an insight about what it’s like to go to university.” 

As well as taking part in the quiz, students also heard from Luke Bacon (Mathematics), who recently completed his degree. Luke gave an insight into student life and what it is like to study maths at university.

Luke said: "It was great to see so many school students here today. I hope my talk proved to them that maths can be fun and that there's much more to it than meets the eye."

The students also heard from PhD research postgraduate Billy Wu (Mechanical Engineering) who talked about Racing Green, an Imperial initiative which brings students from multiple engineering disciplines together to design, build and race low emission vehicles.

The day finished with the winners from each year group being awarded a trophy. St Mary Magdalene Primary School also took home the trophy for best performing school.

Speaking after winning one of the quiz rounds, Waleed Anwoir, aged 11 from St Mary Magdalene Primary School said: “I love maths because there’s a lot to it, it’s not just about adding up and subtracting. You use it in everyday life too.”

The winners are presented with their prizes

Jessica Obayere, aged 11 from Emmanuel Primary School said: “I really enjoyed the event, it made me realise that there is so much you can learn. Hearing from a student at Imperial was really interesting; especially when he talked about all the societies and clubs you can join like scuba diving.”

The College’s Outreach Office also offers summer schools, school mentoring programmes, demonstration lectures and school visits. 

Photos courtesy of Stephen Ball.