Activities

The South

An A4 selection of puzzle challenges, models, and mathematical snippets for your enjoyment and discussion. Familiar to all MathsJam addicts as “The Shout”.

8 Out of 10 Sheep Can't Count Down

A maths game show with prizes! Exercise your maths skills and quickfire arithmetic in a fun contest, familiar to Countdown fans.

MathsJam Jam

Join in for a singalong of your favourite songs, but with mathematical lyrics! Attendees are invited to write and submit their own mathematical lyrics to their favourite tunes; these will be compiled into our 2025 songbook. 

 

Check out the songbook from last time and this mathematical songs YouTube playlist for inspiration, then get writing! If you play, musical instruments are also welcome to participate.

 

For any questions, or to submit a song, email info@mathsjam.nz

Things to Bring

We’ll be running some activities and competitions over the course of the weekend that you may like to participate in.

The Great Mathematical Bake-Off

Bring a mathematically themed baked goodie, to be judged and shared on Saturday afternoon. A Menger sponge, a jam pi? Your imagination is the only limit (unless calculus is involved)! Take a look at the archives from past years for ideas of what to bake.

 

Any food not required for judging purposes will be distributed among the MathsJam gathering attendees, so please bring details of any allergens or other ingredients your entry contains so they can be clearly labelled.

Competition Competition

This is your opportunity to design a competition / puzzle for the other attendees to enter over the course of the weekend. The competition with the most entries wins.

 

You will need to bring:

 

  • Entry forms for the competition, which:

    • Must be a single sided A5 photocopied sheet, printed black-and-white.

    • Must contain all the information necessary to participate in your competition.

    • Must have blank space for the entrants to write their name and their answers, this blank space may be the back of the sheet.

    • You must provide at least 25 copies of your entry form.

    • Each entry form must represent a single entry into your competition, and you must allow only a single entry per person.

  • An entry box,

    • A sealed container with a slot for completed entry forms.

    • Must be clearly marked which competition it is for.

    • The box must be placed on the Competition Competition table and you must inform an organiser by Saturday lunchtime to make your entry official.

  • A prize for the winner of your competition, it must not be worth more than $5 on the open market.

 

As with all competitions, when you submit your entry you should inform one of the MathsJam organisers so we can mark down who submitted what. However when you place your Competition Competition entry on the table, please make sure it is anonymous, so people entering your competition don't know who it belongs to.

 

There will be three prizes for the Competition Competition entries.

 

  1. Best competition as chosen by the panel of judges. The panel will be randomly selected from non-competition-competition-entering MathsJam attendees.

  2. People's Choice: the competition with the most genuine entries.

  3. Best attempt at circumvention of the rules while still strictly sticking to the rules. Don't worry, if you are too good at this and we don't notice at all, you might just end up winning the People's Choice category.

 

Shared Tables and Display

Shared Tables is an opportunity to share a mathematical thing you like, whether that be playing a game of Set, teaching someone how to crochet a hyperbolic plane, or staging a dialogue from Gödel, Escher, Bach. You may also want to share maths crafts, games, puzzles or models.

 

You may also bring printed images, diagrams or written information, such as a cool proof, article or problem to display.

 

There will be a display space at the venue set aside for the entire weekend for your Shared Tabled items, as well as the timetabled slot where you may showcase your items or run a short workshop.

Board Games

We’ll have social time in the “After Math” of Saturday evening. You may wish to bring a favourite board or card game to play with other keen gamers.

Other Equipment

When we do maths, sometimes we need props. Here’s a suggested list of things that may come in handy over the course of the weekend:

  • Paper, pens, pencils
  • Calculator
  • Things to make smaller bits of paper out of larger bits, for example scissors
  • Things to make larger bits of paper out of smaller bits, for example glue sticks
  • Games, puzzles, interesting toys
  • Coins, dice, tokens, decks of playing cards
  • Straight edge, compass, Euclid himself
  • Knitting needles, yarn, string, ribbon

  • Spare constants of integration