123 ESP!: THE MAGIC of MATHS

mathematician in Bath, SomersetYou’re a Maths Professional: are all your students gripped by the syllabus?  Do they leave your lessons and those of your colleagues, overcome by how relevant to their lives, how intriguing, in a word how Cool, Maths is?  If you experience some hesitation before answering a definite yes to all of these questions, you may well find the 123ESP programme invaluable…

What is unique about this approach, is that it (rather aptly) Squares the Circle, letting you have your pie (chart) while eating it, and solves Fermat’s last theorem.  Well OK, it doesn’t do the third one.  But 123ESP does avoid falling into either of the traps most commonly found in the ‘Making Maths Fun’ jungle.  On the one hand, it is not simply a dry presentation of curriculum material with some ‘magic dust’ sprinkled unconvincingly on top.  Nor, crucially, is it simply a Wild and Wacky Ride™, with absolutely no relevance to your teaching needs.

magician entertaining in Bath

How has 123ESP avoided these two extremes?  Simply because its designers come from those extremes!  On the one hand, Garrod Musto is a highly experienced Head of Mathematics at a leading Secondary school.  On the other, Ian ‘Mindwriter’ Carpenter, is an equally experienced professional Magician.  Ian’s childhood dilemma was the mismatch he always found between school maths (dull) and the magic he had begun studying at home (captivating!), much of which used explicitly mathematical principles.  123ESP then, stems from years of thought, bringing together a specially chosen series of Mind Reading and Magic effects, each of which is mathematical in operation – and even more importantly, every single one of which has been curriculum-matched, then clearly and simply explained by a maths professional.

Magician in School in Wiltshire

The result is a two part presentation: first a show, which concentrates ONLY on being entertaining, as only a professional performer can – with a great deal of highly enjoyable audience participation.  It is precisely this approach which then makes the students so eager to hear the maths: where else are they going to have professional magic secrets revealed?!?  And they do, as Garrod has created a detailed Powerpoint presentation to talk them through the principles involved.  Of course, since one or two of the presentations actually come from Ian’s professional repertoire, some of this explanatory session is more ‘exploration’ around a topic, rather than literal blow-by-blow revealing of secrets; although there is plenty of that too, more than enough to satisfy Derren Brown and David Blaine fans!

maths taught with magic

The core of 123ESP then, is this two part presentation; but it does not end there.  Experience has shown that what works well is to have a further session in the middle, supervised by staff, where the pupils get to learn and examine some maths tricks of their own.  Follow-up sessions and materials for teachers and students are also in the pipeline, linked to a dedicated website.

magician in School in Bath, Somerset

Among those who have benefited from the 123ESP Maths Magic show are:

The Bath University Maths Masterclass
Kingswood School
Chew Valley School
Hayesfield School
STEMNET & Sponsors GE

 If you would like to find out more about this exciting new approach to broadening the appeal of your maths teaching, please call Ian, on 07920 212392 or email