Marvellous Maths

A wonderfully inventive exploration of that most abstract of subjects – mathematics.  Three cheers for the creative team at Templar for making it all so intriguing and hands-on.  Flaps and tabs, pop-ups and spinners all help to explain concepts such as probability and transformations as well as geometry, statistics, fractions and percentages.  By lifting a flap you can learn about the power of 10 for example, or find out about square numbers or square roots.  There are press-out pieces to understand net shapes, and games to further explore the concept with a nifty little pop-up spinner.  Activities range from how to measure the height of a tree to making your own tessellation.  The final spread explores fascinating ideas behind Fibonacci’s numbers and Pascal’s triangle.  There is a wealth of detail here that will repay many return visits, and the paper engineering appears sturdy enough to withstand classroom use.  This would be a useful tool for group work as well as for individual enjoyment, and will hopefully inspire and give confidence to anyone who is maths-shy.