Coming up...

Join Mathateca at the Festival of Women and Girls in Science banner

Join us at Tūranga from 10am-3pm Saturday 15th February for an inspiring and hands-on STEM festival perfect for scientists aged 5-15 and their whānau.

 

Mathateca will be running our 3D printing exhibition, delivered in collaboration with Christchurch City Libraries.

Watch this space for info about our next events and displays.

 

If you have an idea for something mathsy you'd love to see or collab with us for, let us know! 

You can read what sorts of things we've got up to previously below.

Pi Day: Calculating Pi From Scratch

Calling one-and-all to attempt to calculate as many digits of pi as we can, using nothing but paper and pencil.

Can we beat Matt Parker's 2024 attempt?

On Saturday March 15 2025, number enthusiasts in Christchurch are gathering in the Rātā Building, rooms 222/223, University of Canterbury to try to calculate as many digits of pi as we can by hand. 

If you can do long division (or are willing to learn) then you have the required skills to participate. Come along, and bring your friends!

The event runs between noon - 5pm; turn up anytime.

There will be a short presentation at 1:30pm about pi.

 

Mathateca is proud to support this valiant calculation effort for the 2025 International Day of Mathematics.

Past events

Learning through games at CWEA | Kanohi ki te kanohi

 

Mathateca found a joyous collaborative partner in the Canterbury Workers Education Association (CWEA) when we were invited to their inaugural "Festival of Learning through Games" event on May 18th as part of the 2024 Ako Learning City Festival for Ōtautahi Christchurch.


The event celebrated not only the power of games to bring people together kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face), but to expand how we think.
Mathateca’s contribution to the event was exploring some of the strategy behind the ancient game Mancala, and the showcasing mathematical concept of tiling through the wonderful homegrown (NZ invented) puzzle game Tantrix.


The event was an opportunity to represent Mathateca to new communities and great fun to boot.


Highlights of the event outside of Mathateca’s offerings included a demonstration of traditional Māori rope games and an introduction to Balderdash.

 

A Mathateca volunteer shows some Dobble cards to interested senior attendees gathered around a table. The table is covered in rows of Tantrix tiles and other mathematical games.