Math Inspires Pupil To Build Eiffel Tower At Home

A primary school pupil was so inspired by a ‘magic maths’ morning at Westbourne House School in Chichester, he set about building the Eiffel Tower with cocktail sticks.

The year 3 pupil at South Bersted Church of England Primary School, Zachary Bosley, aged 7, learnt to build a dodecahedron (a 3D shape with 12 flat faces) at the Westbourne House School maths event using 30 sticks and 20 marshmallows.

Zachary then went home and used 300 cocktail sticks and a glue gun to build his masterpiece Eiffel Tower.

Zachary’s mum, Sandra Bosley, from South Bersted, said: ‘Zachary was so inspired by the workshop, he just didn’t want to come home. It was great fun and he loved it so much we just had to let him carry on building!’

Over 30 children from local Sussex schools including Chichester, Bognor, Midhurst, Emsworth and Tangmere attended the magic of maths morning at Westbourne House School.

The Saturday morning workshop was designed for children who get a buzz from maths to enjoy the subject off-curriculum and have fun. For the Westbourne House School teachers, it was a chance to share their passion for maths with keen pupils from a great cross section of schools.

Westbourne House Head of Maths, Mrs Low, said: ‘We were really pleased to have 32 enthusiastic children at our magic of maths morning from across our local community. We all had great fun and at the end I was so happy to hear lots of children asking if there was another session next week.

‘Our maths team shared different elements of ‘maths magic’ with the children. Mr Allingham showed them maths tricks; I explained Pig Pen cipher (a code using geometry); Mrs Langford demonstrated the Chicken, Wolf and Corn logic puzzle and then we made polygons.’

Mrs Low added: ‘We have received lots of lovely feedback which is very rewarding and we will definitely be holding future sessions.’

See Westbourne House School’s online listing here.