Maths videos - investigations and puzzles rather than core learning

[cornflakegirl]

DS is 10 and very good at maths. Not a genius, but grasps concepts very quickly.

We have recently been watching some video podcasts (A Mathematician's Holiday) which he has really enjoyed. They are quite short - 5-10 minutes each, and each one explores a maths problem (eg 3 jugs), setting the problem, and then showing a neat way to solve it without trial and error.

I am looking for some more videos in a similar vein, but when I google I tend to turn up maths tutoring sites. It looks like Khan academy has got a few videos of the sort that I'm looking for in the recreational maths section - any suggestions for more when we've got through them?

Is dara o brien's school of hard sums too advanced?

Ooh, good idea - I'll see if there are clips on youtube.

It's a book rather than a video but have a look at Professor Ian Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities and it's sequels.

It's a book of maths and logic puzzles which my 12 year old (Y7) maths mad nephew loves.

MrsMortis - I love Ian Stewart (and have done since I discovered his books 20 years ago). But despite the fact that DS1 is a complete bookworm, reading maths puzzles doesn't seem to do it for him :(

I've just looked at the website and it does seem very interesting. It reminded me that Marcus Du Sautoy covered the bridges problem in his RI Christmas Lecture a few years back, so this could be worth looking at as he also went into similar problems.

There is also the radio archive from the BBC. If you look in the Science and Nature section under "Factual" there are programmes about maths. They tend to explain and discuss rather than pose problems, but dd (aged 11) loves to listen to these as she goes to sleep. Simon Singh did some on numbers, which were interesting.

I'm also a fan of the Ian Stewart books.

Richmal - the problems and explanations in the podcasts are very interesting. The presenters are shockingly bad though :)

Love both your ideas, thank you. I have a small crush on Marcus du Sautoy.

Have a look at the Nrich website. Great problem solving activites. I use them a lot when I teach. No videos but something to get his teeth into.

Pudding - the nrich website is another thing that I love, but DS has to be in the right mood to want to do an activity from there. Not sure why, as whenever he does do one they're always really interesting! He is a funny boy.

He is currently really enjoying the Khan Academy recreational maths videos - although he thinks that the presenter talks too fast ;)

Have a look at the Numberphile videos. Also Vi Harts videos are worth trying.

Ruby - thanks for them - we're really enjoying Vi Hart's stuff on Khan Academy, so will check out her website. I had never heard of Numberphiles and the site looks very intriguing!

Why don't you look at nrich

nrich.maths.org/frontpage

It is a website designed to challenge more able mathematicians.

Really - thanks, as I said to pudding, we do use nrich and think it's great, but I was after videos as DS particularly favours them at the moment (he likes sneaking extra screen time!)

I discovered a magazine called Puzzle Club that covers Maths, English and science for KS2. My kids love it because it's fun as well as educational.

www.puzzler.com/puzzleclub