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Maths for Planet Earth: Climate Based Questions for students and teachers

A team of students, Madeleine Ratcliffe, Lucy Fellingham and John Allen, and academics at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, developed the Maths for Planet Earth questions. They work on climate and energy issues and are passionate about inspiring young people to join the fight against climate change.

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The world needs brainy mathematicians to help tackle climate change.

The aim of these questions is to integrate climate change into the school curriculum beyond the usual suspects of geography and environmental science.

These questions closely follow example problems from GCSE and A level past exams and were developed using existing exam questions. The maths skills tested in the question remained unchanged, but the context of the question was adapted to a climate change theme.

Net-Zero Buses
A Level
Net-Zero Buses
15 cities, each of varying sizes, decide to have carbon-neutral public transport systems. When the cities are arranged in size order from smallest to
Arithmetic Afforestation
A Level
Arithmetic Afforestation
A country decides to begin a reforestation program, starting in 2020, gradually increasing the number of trees planted per year by the same amount
EV Increase
A Level
EV Increase
A country decides to subsidise the purchase of electric vehicles, causing more people to buy them. Initially, the country used an equivalent of 56
A Total Emissions Goal
A Level
A Total Emissions Goal
The warming caused by carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions over any given period is proportional to the total amount of CO₂ emitted over that period.
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