Celebrating: Elgy Johnson

Date: Monday 7 December 2026
Upper primary class: 10:00am – 10:50am OR 2:00pm – 2:50pm
Format: Live, online, and classroom-ready – all you need is paper!

Last year, more than 22,000 pupils from 275 primary schools across the UK met real-life mathematicians and learned about Black mathematicians from history. Thanks to the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, Celebrating… is back for another two years! Every term brings a new mathematician from history and a new special guest.

We start with a special pre-Christmas workshop celebrating Elgy Johnson (1912–1987), an African American mathematician, teacher and leader from Jacksonville, Florida. Elgy began his career teaching in Washington DC schools and served in Europe during the Second World War. He went on to earn a PhD in mathematics from Catholic University, where he also earned a law degree! He became head of mathematics at the District of Columbia Teachers College and, from 1972 to 1974, was acting president of Federal City College.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

It’s one of the oldest questions around, and it turns out we can use maths to help us. In this fun, interactive workshop, our special guest mathematician Herb Daly will explore how Elgy delved into this idea and challenge your class to a series of simple algebra challenges.

Free classroom resources for teachers

Every teacher who takes part will receive free PDF resources about each mathematician we celebrate. We’ll add to them after every event, so your collection will grow throughout the series. Each one includes:

an illustrated biography written for upper primary pupils
a classroom maths activity based on the workshop and linked to the Key Stage 2 curriculum
a profile of our guest mathematician and the work they do
discussion prompts and a short teacher note, so you can teach it without specialist knowledge
a printable classroom poster

The resources will also include the mathematicians we celebrated last year: Thomas Fuller, Francis Williams, Katherine Johnson and Muhammad al-Fulani. You can bring Black mathematicians into your maths lessons at any time of year.

Who can join?

Upper primary classes across the UK. It’s FREE!

How to join?

Book your class now by clicking the buttons below to take you to a Zoom registration page:

10am

2pm

Meet our guest Dr Herb Daly

Dr Herb Daly is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire with a PhD in Mathematical Modelling. At university he studied Computer Science, using mathematical techniques to improve the quality of software. He now uses mathematical approaches to understand large, business-critical systems looking at areas such as AI and Cyber Security.

Email maths@big-ideas.org if you have any questions.