Puzzles, games and puzzle hunts · Maths CAS idea

Create a maths trail for a local park

CreativityServiceProject-ready

Design a family maths trail in a local park or museum, with question cards about shapes, distances and patterns you can find there, agreed with the site's staff.

Where the maths comes in

Estimation, measurement, angles and data from the real environment.

Which CAS strand it fits

  • Creativity: The arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
  • Service: Unpaid, voluntary work with others that also has a learning benefit for you.

Your CAS coordinator decides how an experience counts at your school. Strand summaries are provisional (our words, being checked).

How to run it

  1. Contact the site through your school and agree the idea.
  2. Walk the site and draft questions at different levels.
  3. Test the trail with families or younger students.
  4. Produce the final trail and leave copies with the site.

This can grow into a CAS project if your CAS coordinator agrees: see planning a maths CAS project.

How to evidence it

  • Site notes and drafts
  • Test results
  • The finished trail and the site's response

Date everything and keep it in your school's CAS portfolio as you go. More on what counts as evidence.

Reflection prompts

Questions to think about, not answers to copy. Write your reflections in your own words, in whatever form your school accepts.

  • What did the site's staff want from the trail?
  • How did testing change your questions?
  • Who did you design it for, and how did you know it worked for them?

Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show

  • Initiative and planning. What did you plan, and what did you have to change once you started? Who did you need to ask for permission or help, and how did you go about it?
  • Collaboration. What did someone else bring that you could not have done alone? Describe a disagreement or a mix-up in the team. How was it resolved?
  • Challenge and new skills. What could you not do at the start that you can do now? Which moment felt most uncomfortable, and what did you do next?

Whether you meet an outcome depends on what you actually do and reflect on, not on the idea. Outcome labels are our short summaries, being checked.

Safety and ethics

  • Visit in a group; follow the site's rules and any risk assessment.

Agree every plan with your CAS coordinator first. Safety and ethics for maths CAS.

For puzzle ideas to adapt (never copy), browse competition maths.

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