A thrilling week of cartography in Maths

The Maths Department at Hazlegrove has ‘drifted a little bit off course’ and we have got ‘hopelessly lost’ in the exciting world of maps and cartography.

For our special autumn term maths exploration week we have, once again, taken a small detour off the prescribed maths syllabus as we have explored the enchanting (or should I say encharting) world of maps and cartography and all the amazing maths that underpins map making. Of course this is an extremely large topic packed with a vast array of fascinating mathematical avenues to reconnoitre. Throughout the course of the week, Years 3 to 7 were learning all about different units of measurements, scale conversions, how to take and follow bearings, how to plot co-ordinates and then how to combine all of these skills to either draw a detailed map or find hidden treasure. All-in-all it was really thrilling week and it has been lovely to see the children out and about testing and expanding the mathematical skills they have been taught.

In this age of satellite navigation it is so important that we don’t lose the respect, fascination and wonder that maps deserve.

Click here to see the photographs in our Flickr album