Maths Mansion
Maths Mansion is a British educational television series for school Years 4 to 6 (nine to eleven year olds) that ran from 19 September 2001 to 26 March 2003. Produced by Channel 4 by Open Mind, It follows the adventures of "Bad Man" taking kids to his mansion, Maths Mansion.[1][2] There, the kids learn and are tested on maths every week; if they pass the quiz, they get a "Maths Card".
The kids are not allowed to leave the mansion until they get enough Maths Cards. They do not always pass the test, and this is shown in various episodes, one of them being Angleman!. Frequently interrupting each programme is another programme, about "Sad Man", who seems to be quite happy. He demonstrates maths with songs, puppets, and games.
Sad Man has a puppet called "Decimole", as for him being a mole. Decimole is known for attacking people; in the final episode, Bad Man digs up Decimole, and Decimole kills Bad Man. There were forty episodes in four seasons. Each episode is about ten minutes long and comes with a teacher's guide and activity book and three activity sheets of differing levels for kids to use in class.[3][4]
Characters
The main characters of Maths Mansion (other than the several kids in each episode) are Bad Man and Sad Man. Bad Man is the game show host who traps the kids and does not let them leave until they acquire Maths Cards that are earned in his game show.[2] One of Bad Man's catchphrases, "No Leaving Without Learning," sums up his attitude towards the kids and his role in the show.
Sad Man, a dated, uncharismatic, leather elbow patch wearing alter ego of Bad Man from the seventies, regularly interrupts Bad Man's programming with informational broadcasts that help the kids learn how to leave the mansion and teaches the lesson to the kids watching the show.[4] Sad Man brings with him several minor characters such as Decimole and Snorter the Pig, a collection of puppets.[2] Sad Man also occasionally has other alter egos himself such as Angleman, who is the namesake for one episode 5 of season 3.
Other than Bad Man, Sad Man, and the kids, other characters include:
- Decimole
- Miss Sniff
- Angleman
- Mr. Girhalf
- Third Bird
- Twelfth Elf
- Not So Great Big Hen
- Snorter
- Thick Stick
Episodes
Season 1
Season 1 is an introduction to the number system and general mathematics.
| Episode | Episode Name | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Not the Great Big Hen" | Multiplying by 10 and 100 |
| 2 | "Not the Great Big Hen... Again" | Dividing by 10 and 100 |
| 3 | "The Deciworms" | Decimals |
| 4 | "The Negs" | Negative Numbers |
| 5 | "Fraction Aid" | Decimal Equivalents |
| 6 | "The Rounding Machine" | Rounding Decimals |
| 7 | "Get Some Fraction Action" | Dividing by Fractions |
| 8 | "The Whole Class Should be Expelled" | Percents |
| 9 | "The Queen of Tarts" | Ratios and Proportions |
| 10 | "Doing Time" | Elapsed Time |
Season 2
Season 2 is focused on doing simple mathematical calculations.[5]
| Season Episode | Episode | Episode Name | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | "Take it Easy" | Mental subtraction |
| 2 | 12 | "Nine Nits is all there's Room For" | Addition and subtraction less than 10,000 |
| 3 | 13 | "Breaking up is Easy to Do" | Multiplication |
| 4 | 14 | "You Ain't Nothing but a Hundred" | Multiplication of 3-digit numbers by single digits |
| 5 | 15 | "Dividing we Stand" | Dividing 3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers |
| 6 | 16 | "Double Digit Dating" | Multiplying double digit numbers |
| 7 | 17 | "Six Flat Worms" | Area |
| 8 | 18 | "Learn your Lines" | Parallel and Perpendicular lines |
| 9 | 19 | "Rectangle Delight" | Properties of rectangles |
| 10 | 20 | "Triangle Delight" | Properties of triangles |
Season 3
Season 3 is focused on numbers and the number system, including natural numbers, integers, and rational numbers.[6]
| Season Episode | Episode | Episode Name | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 | "The Return of the Great Big Hen" | Mental division by multiples of 10 |
| 2 | 22 | "Hundredths and Thousandths" | Ordering mixed sets of numbers |
| 3 | 23 | "Make and Break: Part 1" | Multiples and grid pattern multiplication |
| 4 | 24 | "Make and Break: Part 2" | Factors and prime numbers |
| 5 | 25 | "Do the Bottom Same as the Top" | Equivalent fractions |
| 6 | 26 | "More Fraction Action" | Finding fractions |
| 7 | 27 | "Percentigmole" | Fraction, decimal, and percentage equivalents |
| 8 | 28 | Proportionimole" | Ratios and proportions |
| 9 | 29 | "Sad Hair Day" | Column addition and subtraction |
| 10 | 30 | "Another Sad Hair Day" | Multiplication of decimals |
Season 4
Season 4 is focused on geometry, specifically shape, space, and problem solving using those ideas.[7]
| Season Episode | Episode | Episode Name | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 | "All the Way Round" | Perimeter |
| 2 | 32 | "The Worms Return" | Area |
| 3 | 33 | "A Very Fine Pet is a Polyhedron" | 3-D shapes |
| 4 | 34 | "Better get back in Shape and be a Square" | Classifying quadrilaterals |
| 5 | 35 | "Angleman!" | Measuring angles |
| 6 | 36 | "The X and Y Files" | plotting coordinates |
| 7 | 37 | "Makeover" | Recognizing translations |
| 8 | 38 | "Turning Points" | Recognizing rotations |
| 9 | 39 | "On Reflection" | Recognizing reflections |
| 10 | 40 | "Pie Pie Everyone" | Pie charts |
External links
- Channel 4 Learning - Maths Mansion, an archive of the former official website.
References
- Star Maths one Channel 4 learning. 12 September 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- Ellis, Chris. (2007). The Maths Mansion Experience. The Association of Teachers of Mathematics. Retrieved 7 February 2019
- Maths Mansion: Education. Digiguide.tv. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
- Sayers, Judy. (2007). Channel 4 'Maths Mansion'. The Association of Teachers of Mathematics. Retrieved 15 February 2019
- Maths Mansion 2. Channel 4 learning. 2 March 2012. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019.
- "Maths Mansion: numbers and the number system" Channel 4 learning. 2 March 2012. Retrieved from the original 12 February 2019.
- Maths Mansion: Measures, Shape and Space and Solving Problems. Channel 4 learning. 2 March 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2019.