Ignite your child’s passion with these maths resources
If your child is having a hard time feeling the love for all things numbers, here are some fun maths resources that can help.
Struggling to find a way to help your child make a connection with maths? Introducing maths through pop culture can be a positive and gentle way to ease them into it.
We’ve rounded up some great maths resources for you and your family. These are examples of what you can read and watch with your child to show them that maths can be exciting, useful and fun!
Know of other great resources that could be added to our lists? Email Mathematics.Hub@esa.edu.au with your suggestions.
Real-life examples and familiar characters in books, TV and movies can all help young people relate to and make sense of mathematical concepts.
Books to inspire a love of maths
Hidden figures: The American Dream and the untold story of the black women who helped win the space race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Find out how a team of black female mathematicians at NASA used calculations to launch rockets and astronauts into space.
Humble pi: A comedy of maths errors by Matt Parker
Wobbly bridges, missing money, power failures on a passenger jet … See what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world
The Simpsons and their mathematical secrets by Simon Singh
This book points out all the equations, theorems and conjectures hidden inside episodes of popular TV show, The Simpsons.
Woo’s wonderful world of maths by Eddie Woo
From rainbows and music to card tricks and conspiracy theories, Eddie shows us that our universe is made up of patterns and, ultimately, maths.
Movies to inspire a love of maths
Check the rating, depending on the age of your child, these might be good for you to view and discuss the maths involved.
Queen of Katwe
Rated: PG
One for the chess fans! Phiona’s life changes when she learns to play this mathematical game, becomes a top player and has the opportunity to escape from poverty.
Hidden figures
Rated: PG
The true story of three African-American women who worked as ‘computers’ for NASA to send American astronauts into space.
Moneyball
Rated: M
A baseball manager uses maths (including lots of statistics) to select the best players for his team.
The imitation game
Rated: M
British mathematician, Alan Turing, joins a cryptography team to help decipher German enigma code in the Second World War.
The Martian
Rated: M
Watch an astronaut use maths to solve challenges and help him survive in space.
