Ben Sparks

I think it's time to post this again (since the thresholds have been frozen).
www.geogebra.org/m/p97htgc3
[please note this for INCOME TAX only]

AMSP has opened bookings for The Maths of Data Science and AI for A level Maths teachers from 4 Feb 2026.

Explore how maths powers machine learning, with hands-on activities using Desmos and Python.

Open to state-funded schools, with £350 bursary to attend study days. Sign up: buff.ly/nZ8DS5D

I've been loving teaching on MEI's Maths Into AI (for students) and Maths of Data Science and AI (for teachers). They're free (+ teachers get a bursary of £350 to cover costs). Next term's for teachers is open, starts in Feb: amsp.org.uk/event/b23514...
General details: amsp.org.uk/maths-into-ai/

The AMSP 'Maths of Data Science and AI' spring-term course for #ALevelMaths students is nearly full and we're likely to close applications later on today.

There's still places on our course for non-A level Maths students and our teacher PD course though: amsp.org.uk/maths-into-ai/

The Midwich Cuckoos (and/or other John Wyndham)

Chalkdust: Read Issue 22 now A magazine for the mathematically curious. Issue 22 now available: DNA origami, tracks and an interview with El Nombre feature in our AW25 issue! Plus all your favourite puzzles & columns.

🦂🚨🦂 New Chalkdust alert! 🦂🚨🦂

DNA origami, tracks and an interview with El Nombre feature in our AW25 issue! Plus all your favourite puzzles & columns.

Read the entire new issue now at
chalkdustmagazine.com

Trigonometry Tracer Trig Tracer

www.geogebra.org/m/S2W46Thv

#mathstoday (well yesterday). A colleague saw me playing with this awesome GeoGebra file from @sparksmaths.bsky.social. Led to a great pedagogy discussion and sharing the file with the entire dept. I then used it with my sixth form class who now know understand why tan is the tangent ☺️ #ALevelMaths

I vaguely remember it... when was it set?
I get the feeling that one of the biggest issues was grasping the direction of the reaction at C (which, now I've convinced myself, feels obvious, but for a long time was not obvious to me)

Ouch. Always awkward. Fingers crossed it resolves naturally, but if you're still there after 15 mins I would probably go home and immediately send them a normal invoice (with a note etc).

Schools - there are still seats available for our Cambridge shows on 10th December, featuring Ben Sparks (aka @sparksmaths.bsky.social), Alison Kiddle and Oliver Dunk from Google. Bursaries are available for schools facing overwhelming transport costs. mathsinspiration.com/events/?id=204

MathsWorld – London’s new Museum of Mathematics MathsWorld is an interactive museum in London with innovative hands-on exhibits that explore the beauty, wonder, and everyday relevance of mathematics for visitors of all ages.

Excitingly, Today's the opening day of MathsWorld, the new hands-on maths museum in London. I've really enjoyed visiting MathsCity in Leeds, but they've now got a London location too! Details at mathsworld.com

The list of speakers that work on @robeastaway.bsky.social 's @mathsinspiration.bsky.social shows is a pretty useful list of quality speakers. mathsinspiration.com/maths-speake...

October Members’ Forum: Engaging audiences with AI October Members’ Forum: Engaging audiences with AI

Tomorrow, I'm showing off MENACE at the Association for Science and Discovery Centres' Members' Forum. Tickets are free and looks like they're still available. www.sciencecentres.org.uk/events/octob...

David's blog is worth a read, but I suggest first trying to marshall your thoughts about *why* the central diagram does in fact represent independent events correctly.

A collection of nine diagrams. Each is a ten-by-ten grid with a four-by-five rectangle in its bottom left corner shaded with wavy lines. Each also has a five-by-six rectangle shaded in grey, overlapping with the wavy-shaded rectangle by a different amount in each diagram. They each have a label underneath too. In the first diagram, the grey rectangle covers the wavy-shaded rectangle completely and the label says “Not independent”. In the second diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 15 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the third diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 12 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the fourth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 8 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the fifth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 6 squares and the label says “Independent!” in capital letters. In the sixth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 4 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the seventh diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 2 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the eighth diagram, the two rectangles overlap on 1 squares and the label says “Not independent”. In the ninth diagram, the two rectangles do not overlap and the label says “Not independent”.

This came up in the staff meeting today: how the ordinary English meaning of the word “independent” does not describe at all how a Venn diagram looks, and what to do to fix that. #MathSky www.adelaide.edu.au/mathslearnin...

Lovely stuff David, thanks for sharing this again. You've made me upgrade my vocabulary to include "area-proportional Venn diagrams". Better late than never!

We’re excited to announce that our free FE CPD Programme has been refreshed to provide even more support for teachers!

Updated CPD Menu
Improved Extended Courses
New National Online Events
New Maths Matters Newsletter

Find out more: buff.ly/QF1Hc7z

#FEmaths

Sadly no on the puzzle, and happily yes on getting home. At 0140.

Feel like a chump for even trying to use public transport. If the 0015 service does arrive I will still have spent 2hrs 20mins of my day standing on tarmac looking expectantly down the road for overdue and apparently ghostly bus services, while paying for the privilege.

Then at Bristol Airport the A4 Air Decker 2330 service simply didn't show up (I was waiting from 2300 or so). Currently still waiting, angry, hoping a 0015 bus might arrive to take me home, maybe.

Also in Glasgow, at 1755, I waited 45 mins for a no. 500 Airport Express service (they run every 10-12 mins apparently). Digital signs pronounced the imminent arrival of 3 500 buses in this time. None showed up (until 1840).

It's been a day of First Bus fails.
In Glasgow, waited 20 mins for a no. 8 to show up this morning. No show. Had to catch a no. 90 instead.

A data scientist pointing to a graph on a screen

This term the AMSP is running a 'Maths into Data Science and AI' course for #ALevelMaths students. An online 11-week assessed course that introduces them to Python for data and machine learning.

1st cohort starts late September - you can sign your students up now at: amsp.org.uk/event/4d4629...

Teachers on a professional development course

We've got a new PD course for #ALevelMaths teachers: The Maths of Data Science and AI.

Learn how maths is used in machine learning/AI, get ideas for the classroom and improve your technology skills for data.

5 online sessions and a study day. You can sign-up now at: amsp.org.uk/event/192742...

Yes, though I think that meaning has come from the fact that 'moot' meant a meeting.
(i.e. a place where things are debated... hence a moot point is debatable)

I remember learning about ancient 'moot sites' where gatherings occurred... Or remember the 'Entmoot' in Tolkien's LOTR.

(also could obviously be me reading too much into similar sounding words...)

I feel like both of those could conceivably contain some sense of being 'made to' gather for war or ceremonial purposes...

Is there any connection with muster (to gather?) and moot (meeting? Possibly archaic?).

(I ask without doing any research myself, yet)