Mathscope
Mathscope is a BBC schools TV series from the 1990s, covering Mathematics for primary school pupils.
A practical maths series presented by Martin Roberts, who works at the "Local Daily News". The newspaper is too boring so Martin has been charged with reinvigorating it by introducing a maths-based pull-out supplement. Needless to say this is a tremendous success.
Martin's preparations for features in the Mathscope supplement provide opportunities for him to talk to viewers about aspects of mathematics. He also uses the office computers to prepare graphs, and has severe difficulties with a coffee machine.
Each episode also features animated sequences with a character called O'Liney, who is literally just a piece of string - a piece of string as might be found in any classroom and used by pupils for their own investigations.
There are documentary films showing people using maths in quite unusual "everyday" activities - such as a blind person finding their way to the shops by imagining a clock face for direction, the Royal Mint turning raw metals into pound coins, and Bill Giles explaining how he uses patterns to predict the weather.
The main part of each episode was a drama about a group of children at an adventure playground in the same area where the Local Daily News is published. Karen moves in to the area is introduced to Jess, Omar, whose parents own a corner shop, and Darren, who uses a wheelchair and organises all of the others. There are also two grown-ups, Dawn and Mike, who work at the adventure playground.
Towards the end of the series the council threatens to knock down the playground to put in a new road, but the children do surveys and create graphs in an attempt to influence the planning committee.
The playground drama was filmed at Whittington Park Adventure Playground in Holloway[1], but was known as Babbage Park Adventure Playground in the series.
Episodes
| # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mathstrail | 9 Jan 1991 |
| 2. | Measuring | 16 Jan 1991 |
| 3. | Routes and Maps | 23 Jan 1991 |
| 4. | Patterns | 30 Jan 1991 |
| 5. | Boxes | 6 Feb 1991 |
| 6. | Shops and Supermarkets | 13 Feb 1991 |
| 7. | Time and Travel | 27 Feb 1991 |
| 8. | The Summer Fair | 6 Mar 1991 |
| 9. | Play Centre Threat | 13 Mar 1991 |
| 10. | Play Centre Saved? | 20 Mar 1991 |
Credits
| Presented by | Martin Roberts |
| Starring | Oliver Cook as Darren Anderson Leanne Ormesher as Karen Williams |
| with | Shaheen Khan as Mrs Rashid Marc Zuber as Mr Rashid |
| Drama written by | Stephen Deal Julia Drum |
| Music | Dave Cooke |
| Consultant | Angela Walsh |
| Education officer | David Watkins |
| Design | Mary Greaves Stephen Brownsey |
| Directors | Andrea Christodoulou Vivienne Cozens |
| Series producer | Julia Drum |
Broadcasts
- Spring 1991: Wednesdays 9:30am, repeated Thursdays 9:30am
- Autumn 1991: Mondays 10:00am, repeated Thursdays 10:00am
- Autumn 1992: Mondays 10:00am, repeated Thursdays 10:00am
- Autumn 1993: Tuesdays 10:45am, repeated Wednesdays 9:30am
Resources
Teacher's notes
16-page A4 teacher's notes written by the series consultant Angela Walsh, with summaries of each episode, follow-up ideas with links to National Curriculum Attainment Targets, suggestions of relevant computer software, and hand-drawn activity sheets.
Pupils' book
A full-colour softback book for pupils to accompany the series was available to the general public as well as schools, written by Angela Walsh and published by Longman. It was not published in time for the original transmission of the series in spring 1991, but came out in time for the repeat transmission in the autumn term.
There are photographs of children on the covers of both the teacher's notes and the pupils' book, but they are not the children from the programmes.
Sources & References
- Walsh, Angela (1991) Mathscope teacher's notes spring 1991. London: BBC Educational Publishing. ISBN 0-563-34706-6
- BBC annual programme guides and termly wallcharts, 1990-1993
- recordings of all 10 episodes
- ↑ There was a credit "with thanks to Whittington Park Adventure Playground, Holloway" at the end of episode 10.
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