This week, Andy Bottomley from the Lancaster University School of Mathematics (LUSoM), kindly came in to deliver a taster session to a group of our year 10 mathematicians. 

He began by talking about LUSoM and how to apply to this prestigious post-16 establishment in September. This Mathematics school is based on London Road in the heart of Preston and our pupils found out what courses are available to them and how they can open doors for them in a number of differing careers.

Then Andy began to look at Pascal’s Triangle and how the patterns can be used in real life applications. The students looked for patterns within this special triangle and managed to spot a number of interesting patterns, including triangular numbers 1,3,6,10,15 …. which was new to them!

This led to a general discussion on combinations using Pascal’s Triangle and how the pupils could use a calculator to generate possibilities from selecting an item from a much larger group. 

The pupils looked at generating all the different combinations on the National Lottery, which is now at an amazing 32,468,436 different combinations - good luck winning!.

The department would like to thank Andy for his time in delivering this interesting and informative session and giving our pupils plenty to think about during the next 12 months.

Mr O'Leary

Head of Mathematics