This collection of resources from The Mathematics Centre covers the full age range from Early Years to post-16 education. Much of the material has been produced as a result of teachers collaborating on projects, attending in service courses and as results of innovative ideas by local teachers.

Mathematics in...

In this resource students are to play the role of a structural engineer working on the design of a prestigious new hotel complex.

As a design engineer students have to carry out complex calculations on the structures steelwork needed to make the building viable. Part of these calculations include assessing...

In this resource students are to play the role of a site engineer on a major sewage project.

The job of the site engineer is to supervise the lifting of a number of large, non-uniform, heavy reinforced concrete slabs using a chain lifting system attached to a small site crane. The task involves ensuring...

In this resource students are given a recent, real-life scenario of flood defence work to allow the learner to apply principles of numerical integration to approximate the calculation of earthwork quantities, including areas and volumes.

Students are asked to play the role of a newly qualified engineer...

In this resource students are to play the role of a graduate engineer working within an engineering surveying department for a major contractor.

Learners are to help establish a framework of control survey points for a new highway development consisting of a two mile by-pass around a small rural village....

In this resource students are to play the role of a graduate engineer working within an engineering surveying department for a major contractor.

Learners are to help establish the exact position of the intersection points of the tangents to the circular curves that form the alignment of a road in a new...

In this resource students are to play the role of a graduate engineer working within an engineering surveying department for a major contractor.

Learners are required to establish the position of a number of additional control points to be subsequently used to establish the road centre line in a new highway...

In this resource students are to play the role of a graduate structural engineer for a major construction company, given the task of designing a steel bridge to carry a railway across a major motorway.

As part of the process learners have to analyse the proposed pin-jointed steel truss bridge by solving...

In this resource students are to play the role of a graduate engineer working to build a two mile by-pass around a small rural village for a major contractor.

The task is to determine the alignment of the new road using information provided by the company that designed it. To do this learners will need to...

In this resource students are asked to test and monitor the strength of concrete specimens brought in to a materials testing laboratory.

In this exercise learners will consider some of the statistical issues that are relevant to the testing and control of concrete quality based on the testing of concrete...

What do you have to consider when designing satellites? And what mathematics is involved?

This collection of resources aims to help students discover the answers to these questions and more. Each resource contains a range of student activities and teacher guidance, covering content most suitable for Key...

Connecting radiators

Radiators are used to keep the communications part of a satellite at an optimum temperature. This is necessary in order for the equipment to function correctly. Connecting the radiators together adds robustness to the system. In this challenge students investigate the...

All the resources listed here are aimed at the age group 14 to 16, except for the "Space for Engine" resource. 

Coolant tank design

Making efficient use of physical space and of materials is a central theme of many engineering problems. In this challenge students...

Origami with squares

Solar panels are an important part of satellite design. There are design constraints on the distance a panel can be from the core of the satellite. In order to increase the area of the panels, satellites of the future may well deploy panels other than rectangular ones....

These 17 resources use the context of satellite design to link in to areas of the mathematics curriculum.

The challenges enable students to take an active stance in the solving of mathematical problems. This is achieved through a variety of approaches; some of the challenges are very open, whilst for others...