Tue 30 Sep
Post by Victoria Robb
Blog
Creepy Crawly Calculations
Creepy Crawly Calculations – Where Maths Meets Minibeasts!
Have you ever wondered how many legs a ladybird has? Or why symmetry is important for many insects? For Maths Week Scotland 2025, we hosted Creepy Crawly Calculations — a fun, hands-on event that brings together two unlikely companions: maths and minibeasts!
Who Took Part:
- We invited pupils from Newtongrange ELC along during the week and then on Saturday welcomed families of all ages!
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Everyone had the chance to handle real stick insects and giant millipedes with experts Brilliant Beasties and then become bug detectives!
What Happened:
Children and families discovered that maths can be truly buzzing with excitement! The Creepy Crawly Calculations event invited children to get hands-on with amazing minibeasts—from giant millipedes to stick insects—while uncovering the hidden numbers, shapes, and patterns in nature.
Young explorers learned to count legs, spot symmetry, and investigate insect habitats in the museum gardens before heading indoors for maths-inspired crafts and creative bug designs. The mix of live creatures, outdoor investigation, and hands-on activities made for an unforgettable experience that brought maths out of the classroom and into the natural world.
The National Mining Museum Scotland team were thrilled by the enthusiasm of the children and families who joined in, proving that maths is everywhere—even in the tiniest of creatures. This led to bigger conversations about the important role minibeasts play to ensure our ecosystems work properly. Did you know it’s not just bees that help pollinate plants and flowers?!
A huge thank you to Maths Week Scotland for making this exciting event possible!
Final Thoughts
By intertwining the world of minibeasts with the elegance of numbers, Creepy Crawly Calculations offers families a chance to see mathematics as a discovery tool rather than a school subject. It reminds us that curiosity, observation, and measurement are at the heart of both science and maths — and that even the smallest creatures have stories to tell through numbers.
We are excited to announce that the Creepy Crawly Calculations resources will be available to borrow, free of charge from October 2025 for community groups, nurseries and schools! Check out our learning pages for more info!
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