Find More Math Inspiration from Our Partners & Friends | National Math Festival

Find More Math Inspiration from Our Partners & Friends

Looking for something new? Following our recent list of relaxing, joyful math resources for all ages, we invite you to explore these collections of math resources made by many partners and friends of the National Math Festival. 

From Our Friends & Partners

Math Resource - Making Math Visible: Hands-On Workshop Resources

DREME Family Math

If you fold laundry, read children’s books, or follow recipes, math is part of your daily life, probably in more ways than you’ve thought about. These playful and engaging family activities transform everyday household routines into math learning opportunities, with no special skills or materials required! You can also find the DREME At-Home Early Math Learning Kit for Families to support families with at-home learning, geared toward children from birth to age 8. Available in both English and Spanish!

Joyful Math with The Global Math Project

2021 Festival presenter Dr. James Tanton has collected a wide variety of joyful resources to help in these tricky times with regard to sustaining mathematics thinking, doing, enjoying, learning, puzzling, and playing. The Joyful Math Online Calendar by the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is a list of upcoming free, interactive online events to encourage joyful math learning and teaching. Fill out this form to add your events to their list.

MoMath Online Events

The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) is offering multiple online events every week, featuring art, music, puzzles, games, and in-depth sessions with mathematicians. The best way to stay informed is to sign up for MoMath’s email newsletter. Fear of missing out? You can also purchase video recordings of a number of past MoMath events!

Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival Resources

2019 festival volunteers with event posters

The Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival team have created a variety of ways to engage in hands-on math explorations from anywhere in the world. You can view JRMF activities, join the Game of the Week, or view their recommended resources for dozens of ways to get puzzling and explore math!

Quantum Activity Pack for Kids (PDF)

IF/THEN® seeks to further advance women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by empowering current innovators and inspiring the next generation of pioneers. Lyda Hill Philanthropies has provided a list of some of the free content being produced by their IF/THEN® Coalition members, bringing women STEM role models into your home through online learning platforms, educational television programming, and family computer science activities. Anamita Guha of IBM’s quantum computing division IBM Q and the QiSkit Community team have created an engaging and fun Quantum Activity Pack for kids to learn about quantum computing at home. (What’s a quantum computer? Older readers might enjoy this article from MIT Technology Review.)

Math Monday Live

Math Monday is normally a weekly drop-in lunchtime activity for schools where students of all ages can get hands on with math games, puzzles and manipulatives that help build their math skills. Now that schools are closed, Festival presenter Scott Kim is hosting weekly sessions online on Mondays at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern time. He’ll show you a new math game you can play at home, using things you have around the house, plus ideas for making the game easier or harder, so all ages can play. Each episode is 30 minutes long, and is for kids ages 6-12 and their parents to do together.

American Mathematical Society (AMS) Free Math Content

The AMS website offers lots of free content that can be used for informal learning and enrichment, thinking about careers, and recreation. During this time of social distancing, online teaching and home schooling, AMS invites you to explore online essays, sample book chapters, Notices issues, podcasts, videos, blogs, and more, and share them with your family, friends and colleagues.

The Young People’s Project Online Math Learning Resources

The Young People’s Project has collected this list of online resources to help families and teachers looking for ways to fill in gaps in formal learning during the COVID-19 crisis.

Pattern block art at 2019 festival

Celebration of Mind – Puzzles, Magic Tricks, Games, DIY Projects, and More

Celebration of Mind brings people together to explore and enjoy puzzles, games, math and magic. Developed by the Gathering 4 Gardner Foundation, worldwide events are held annually on or around the birthday of Scientific American columnist and mathematics enthusiast Martin Gardner’s birthday (October 21st) so that people can meet and share in the legacy of this polymath. These free materials are designed to delight and inspire new generations to discover a range of intellectual pursuits.

Seven At-Home Resources from the National Science Foundation

With schools across the country closing their doors to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 virus, nearly 30 million students in almost every state are facing disruption to their daily education. NSF has long supported innovative STEM education programs that supplement classroom learning and draw from existing best practices in education theory. Here are a few activities for learners of all ages that can be practiced at an appropriate social distance.


Woman Showing Boy mathematical image - National Math Festival 2019

Children’s Museums at Home (search “math”)

While most children’s museums have temporarily closed in response to coronavirus, hundreds of Association of Children’s Museums members around the world are now offering virtual programming to support playful learning at home! Search “math” to find a list of all resources from the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) collections. You can also follow children’s museum activities on social media with the hashtag #ChildrensMuseumsatHome.

Lawrence Hall of Science at Home

The Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California shares fun things for you to do at home or outdoors. Kids and families can look forward to exploring, investigating, discovering and inventing through DIY projects, meeting animal friends, science demonstrations and shows, astronomy and nature walks, plus ways for parents to connect with each other.

Exploratorium: Learning Toolbox

Make sense of timely topics with the coronavirus and find general science support for your virtual classroom or learning together at home from San Francisco’s Exploratorium science center.

From the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI)

National Math Festival organizer MSRI has a variety of ways that you can engage with mathy ideas from anywhere in the world, from the More Math! Resources list and the recordings of 2017 Festival presentations on this site to some of our favorites:

Mathical Book List

The Mathical Book Prize recognizes math-inspiring literature for kids ages 2-18. Prize-winning books are selected by a committee of teachers, librarians, mathematicians, and others. To get the Mathical List, plus reading guides, book reviews, and more, see mathicalbooks.org!

Numberphile's Brady Haran with camera and MSRI's David Eisenbud at National Math Festival 2019

Numberphile YouTube channel

Numberphile is YouTube’s most popular informal mathematics channel. Video journalist Brady Haran friends and collaborators have produced hundreds of videos celebrating mathematics in all its forms. Numberphile videos have nearly 500 million views and they have been featured in online and print publications from the Los Angeles Times and Popular Mechanics to Food and Wine Magazine.

Tadashi’s Toys

Professor Tadashi Tokieda loves to share his toys: in this case, objects you can often make in a matter of minutes at home, which explore “pockets of mystery” in nature and physics. These videos come with lively animated guides to help illustrate the principles of mathematics at work.