European Tour stars to be faced with an extra challenge on the first day’s play of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.
Aberdeen Standard Investments together with the Scottish Government, Winning Scotland Foundation and East Lothian Council are continuing with an innovative partnership to help encourage greater enthusiasm for maths amongst the country’s children – by printing mathematical calculations and expressions upon the 18 pin flags on course for the first day’s play of this week’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open.
The rescheduled event, that is part of the European Tour’s Rolex Series, has also provided the perfect backdrop to offer local pupils a chance to develop their maths skills in a fun, inclusive and exciting way. Golf is the ideal platform to promote mind-set maths and with the help of educational specialists a downloadable education pack is available to local schools, colleges and teachers to use in classrooms or at home. The pack containing maths challenges and tasks relating to the Scottish Open and material on the importance of a positive attitude to maths is being made available as part of the prestigious tournament which falls within Maths Week Scotland this year.
To promote the initiative a competition was run amongst schoolchildren in nearby Macmerry Primary School in Tranent to provide their favourite 1-18 calculations to be used at the Championship. The activity was a great way for young people to apply their maths skills in the context of sport and the removal of the regular 1-18 pin flags during the first round on 1 October will certainly give the likes of Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Scottish hopeful Robert MacIntyre something to think about.
After hearing about the initiative Robert MacIntyre said: “I wish maths lessons involved golf when I was younger! What a great way to learn. We can find numbers in everything we do and by making maths fun and accessible, we can all improve our confidence and skills in numeracy.”
“It was fun and it made us think about tricky sums,” said P5 Macmerry Primary School pupil Zoe. A thought echoed by her Head Teacher Jonathan Revell, who said: “We were delighted to be asked to participate in this project, we gave the children full ownership of creating the calculations and this resulted in some rich conversations in all classes and challenged the children to try out different calculations.”
The initiative coincides with Maths Week Scotland which is part of the Scottish Government’s drive to encourage positive attitudes to numeracy and maths and is developed and delivered by National Museums Scotland. This year sees the fourth annual event taking place from 28 September to 4 October 2020 so the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open provides the perfect backdrop for the activity.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “I am pleased that maths calculations from pupils at Macmerry Primary School will feature on the pinhole flags at the Scottish Open. The initiative is a perfect way to combine maths and sport and I am happy to see it taking place during Maths Week Scotland this year.
“The new resource created by Aberdeen Standard Investments and the Winning Scotland Foundation includes an engaging series of tasks which allow learners to explore maths and golf in a range of creative ways.”
The education pack – available to download from the Maths Week Scotland website - was put together by specialists from the Winning Scotland Foundation. A charity that works with and supports partners to build confidence and resilience in Scotland’s young people. It is also part of Making Maths Count, a Scottish Government initiative to encourage greater enthusiasm for maths amongst children and young people, their parents and carers and the wider public.
Morag Arnot, Executive Director of Winning Scotland Foundation said: “We are delighted to support the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open by providing an education pack to help pupils engage with maths through a series of fun, golf related activities. By encouraging a positive attitude towards numeracy and its relevance to everyday life, this will help fulfil our charitable purpose to empower Scotland’s young people with confidence and resilience.”
Jill Maxwell, Head of Brand Activation at Aberdeen Standard Investments finished: “At Aberdeen Standard Investments our purpose is to ‘invest for a better future’. The importance of young people’s education is vital for all of our futures so during these strange times it’s been pleasing to give them a fun and engaging maths activity as part of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open.”
The Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open will be the second Rolex Series event on the reshaped 2020 Race to Dubai, and the first since the resumption of the season. It takes place from 1-4 October and for the second consecutive year at The Renaissance Club - which was founded in 2008 and nestles on 300 picturesque acres along the Firth of Forth.
