Please note: the price of one Zoom ticket has decreased from when this event was first publicised. One Zoom ticket now costs £55.
Live, interactive, virtual show for Year 7 – 10, all attainment levels, with Zoe Griffiths.
Friday 20 June 2025 and Tuesday 8 July 2025, am and pm shows on both days.
AM show 9:20am – 10:20am GMT, (optional puzzles for early students from 9am).
PM show 1:50pm – 2:50pm GMT, (optional puzzles for early students from 1:30pm).
Or watch a recording on another date/time.
Join Zoe Griffiths for this summer celebration of maths, that explores surprising maths in an interactive and engaging way. With the help of the audience, we experience a live magic trick, conduct a live audience experiment and join in with a curious activity. The show uses no props besides YOU; find out how we can do maths just using facts about our audience, our bodies, and things we happen to have on our person on the day. Surprising maths is hidden in surprising places!
Topics: We are introduced to the strange world of spherical geometry via an activity, we explore the number patterns in bar codes via a magic trick, and we explore the probability of the Birthday Paradox via a large, live audience experiment.
TICKETS
ZOOM TICKETS:
The show is live on Zoom at the days/times above.
£55 for one Zoom ticket (to attend one of the four sessions). One Zoom ticket gives you one Zoom link, that can be accessed from one device only – so you can use it in one room.
Additional Zoom tickets for the same session can be purchased for: £20 per additional ticket. (Up to a maximum of 7 additional tickets per school).
There is no hands-on element in the session, so you can put classes together and view in a hall/larger space without tables. Some schools may feel however that their students will be easier to manage / get more out of the session in smaller, classroom groups, and can purchase the additional tickets to achieve this.
The Zoom live show includes the opportunity for some students to appear on camera as volunteers and for teachers to contribute to the Zoom chat on behalf of their students. Two students from across each live show (not two per school) will win a (popular maths book or equivalent) prize. There may also (time depending) be the opportunity to vote in a poll (teacher of behalf of students, or individually/pairs if they have devices).
Please note that students who volunteer (optional) to be on camera will then be in the recording that is being made accessible to schools. Please do not volunteer your students if they are not allowed to be recorded.
There are a limited number of Zoom tickets per show, in order to keep the Zoom chat and interactive elements manageable, and to give all schools a fair chance of being chosen to volunteer on camera.
RECORDING TICKET:
If you cannot view at the advertised days/times you can buy access to a recording of one of the shows instead.
£140 for one recording ticket.
A recording ticket will give you access to a recording of one of the shows.
You will be emailed a web-link to the recording of one of the shows by 11:59pm on Sunday 22 June 2025.
You will be able to watch the recording by clicking on the link and watching online, as many times as you like, including by multiple devices at the same time, at any time/date(s) between 11:59pm on Sunday 22 June 2025 and 11:59pm on Thursday 24 July 2025.
If, however, you are also purchasing one or more Zoom tickets, the fee for access to the recording of the show reduces to the difference between £150 and what you have already paid on Zoom tickets. ie If you buy one Zoom ticket for £55, it’s an additional £95 for the recording ticket. If you buy two Zoom tickets for the same session for £55 + £20 = £75, it’s an additional £75 for the recording ticket.
If you request it, the recording you get access to can be the session your students were in rather than one of the other shows. Recordings of the 8 July shows will not be available until 11:59pm on Tuesday 8 July 2025.
Please note, if you are viewing a recording of the show, there will not be the opportunity for your students to volunteer and be featured on camera, to vote in polls, or contribute to the Zoom chat and there will not be the opportunity to win a prize.
Think Maths is not VAT registered.
More Details
Accessing the live show
We advise for the best functionality to access the call via the zoom app (zoom desktop client or mobile app), rather than the web browser/client. The zoom desktop client can be downloaded here: https://zoom.us/support/download
Timings of live show
The show content will last for 1 hour starting promptly at 9:20am/1:50pm and lasting until 10:20am/2:50pm. This doesn’t allow time for students to arrive/be registered. We advise students are seated and ready for the start of the show by 9:15am/1.45pm.
Warm-up puzzles will be shown within the Zoom call from 9:00am/1.30pm for early students.
Who is this show suitable for?
This is an enrichment show, meaning the majority of the material is adjacent to, but separate from, the curriculum. There is not much curriculum knowledge assumed.
To give you a sense of the prior maths assumed, Zoe will:
-Reference that the ‘the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees’ (but if your students don’t know this, it’s not a problem, as Zoe tells them this fact anyway),
-Use some simple terms without definition, including: ’90 degree angle’, ‘multiple’, ‘sum’, ‘triangle’,
-Assume an understanding of the very basic concept of probability (students are not required to be able to find numerical probabilities).
Zoe will challenge students at one point to count how many pairs can be made from a group of people, and will then explain the solution. All students can have a go. Some students will have more success than others, and some students will follow the solution more easily than others, but the maths that will be used is not anything students won’t have met (it’s counting and adding, or multiplying and dividing).
Although only basic knowledge is required, that doesn’t mean the show is not suitable for more able students. The show is very suitable for more able students – they will be seeing maths used in unusual and engaging contexts – it will enthuse and excite them about maths.
The nature of a virtual show means that, as the speaker is not physically in the room to help your students keep focus, students who listen and and follow instructions well will get more out of the show.
The show is for lots of students from different schools at the same time. The pace is suitable for students who are listening/watching carefully and following the clear instructions independently.
A buzzer noise and on screen reminder will be shown at the end of each period of student activity so students know it’s time to watch again.
Teacher involvement
Although the tasks are suitable for all-ability Year 7 – 10, and all the explanation and clear instructions are given to the students by Zoe, the nature of a virtual session means it’s realistic that teachers will need to follow the session as well so they can prompt/support some students with activities if needed.
There is also some optional teacher involvement. You can vote in polls (time dependent) on behalf of your students, contribute to the Zoom chat and volunteer your students to be on camera/mic if you wish (this is entirely optional).
Equipment
Students will need scrap paper, and a pen.
Print document: There is one document for the show that it would be helpful for the students to have one copy of each. You will be emailed the file. It can be printed in b/w or colour. Or you can choose not to print at all (students can still take part without the print out, but the print out would be easier for them).
Bar Code: During the show Zoe will need one student (from all the schools) with a product with a bar code on it. It might be that students who have their bag with them can more easily find a product with a bar code on it, so have a higher chance of being able to volunteer. But having their bags with them in the room is definitely not essential.
Calculator: It would be useful if some students in the audience have a calculator on them. There might be the opportunity to volunteer in a calculator trick (time depending). Again, this isn’t essential. If you ask students to bring a calculator if they have one, this will be fine. It’s not an issue if some do not have one.
Content
Please note there is a very, very brief overlap in content between Merry Mathsmas (Zoe’s Christmas virtual event) and this virtual event. In both sessions we count how many ways there are to pair things up – in Merry Mathsmas this maths was used in connection to the lottery, in this show the maths is used to explore a different problem.
Booking
Click the button above book and fill in the booking form. Zoom tickets are limited so we advise doing this ASAP.
Zoom tickets: On filling in this form, if we still have tickets left you will receive a booking confirmation email and an invoice. If there is no space we will email to say you are on the waiting list.
Recording tickets: We will send you a booking confirmation email and an invoice. You will be emailed the recording link by 11:59pm Sunday 22 June 2025, or 11:59pm Tuesday 8 July 2025 (depending on which recording you request). This will be available to view until 11:59pm Thursday 24 July 2025.
Payment for Zoom tickets and recording tickets: On receipt of the invoice, please make payment as soon as possible and by Friday 6th June 2025.
Cancellation of Zoom tickets:
If cancellation is made by email up to end of the day Friday 6th June 2025, we will offer a full refund. If cancellation is made after Friday 6th June 2025 we will not offer a refund and we will still expect payment if it hasn’t yet been made (it will likely be too late for another school to make plans to take your place).
Cancellation of Recording tickets:
If cancellation is made by email up to end of the day Friday 6th June 2025, we will offer a full refund.
If cancellation is made by email after Friday 6th June 2025, but before you are emailed your recording link, we will offer you a full refund, minus a £10 administration fee (ie if you have not yet made payment your invoice total will be reduced to £10).
If cancellation is made after we email you the recording link (even if it lands in your spam folder), we will not offer a refund.
Full terms and conditions can be found here.
Email info@think-maths.co.uk with any questions.
Feedback for Zoe
This is the inaugural outing of this particular virtual show, but Zoe’s successful Christmas virtual show has now run for 4 years. It was rated an average of 4.3 out of 5 for ‘appropriateness of content’, and 4.2 out of 5 for ‘student engagement’ on the teacher feedback forms for the 2024 show.
And see feedback comments below from other (virtual or in-person) sessions Zoe has led. For more Think Maths testimonials, click here.
“Presenter was excellent – the content was varied and all worked well. Think the students liked being part of something bigger!” Teacher feedback from another virtual session.
“My students really enjoyed the event, the interactivity was wonderful.” Teacher feedback from another virtual session.
“The interactivity was the best part, it really engaged people. Zoe was also very funny and had excellent delivery.” Head of Maths, state school, London about an in-person session