All
of Year 7 took part in a Maths Day in the Autumn
term for 3 years. Pupils worked in mixed
ability groups of 3. Some of the activities and
resources are shown below and you are free to use and amend
them as you wish.
| Pendulum
Design Problem
solving activity – Design a pendulum that swings 60
times in a minute |
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| Reaction
Time Investigating whether boys or girls have faster reaction times. |
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| Estimation Problems Estimating lengths and heights. Solving problems involving distance, time and speed |
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| Practical
Circus Finding the speed of various cars and of balls rolling along a track etc… Discussing speeds of various objects and animals Walking and running at different speeds in hall or on playground |
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| Speed-Time
Graphs Drawing and interpreting distance-time graphs Using a Data Logger to draw and match real life movements
Using
the Texas CBR (Contact your link Maths Advisor
or Texas to borrow the equipment) |
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| Animal
Olympics Series of questions with suggested websites related to the performances of animals |
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Strategy Games Several games of strategy that can be used for a competition |
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All
of Year 7 have been taking part in a Maths Day in the Autumn
term for the past 3 years. Pupils worked in mixed
ability groups of 3. This is a single day long project
that was introduced at the start of the day and judged at the
end of the day by an architect.
The
Task "Working as a member of an architectural team you are competing against other companies to win the contract to design a state-of-the-art teaching area on a given site. The teaching area must accommodate 100 students and must fit within a piece of land that is 60metres by 40 metres. (A2 cm squared paper). There is no limit to your budget but if your design is expensive then you must be able to convince the school governors that it is worth the extra money.
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Cryptography
The subject of cryptography is of obvious interest to young
people, as it includes spying, intrigue, secrecy, the Enigma
cipher, mobile phones and the Internet. Furthermore,
is built on mathematics, so it can be used to illustrate
several aspects of the topic and its applications in the
real world. And because cryptography has such a long and rich history, there
is the opportunity to pick up on aspects of the history
syllabus, such as the Elizabethans or the Second World War. I ran a Code Breaking Day where the pupils worked in groups of 3 and each group had access to a computer. I downloaded the Code Book (lite version) [which I put on a CD to give each pupil to take home] and worked through some exercises, which I selected from those on www.simonsingh.net. I mixed these in with some challenges which involved them breaking a code and finding the answer somewhere around the school using a map. At the end of the day they had a period of time to explore one of the many techniques which we hadn't covered from the CDRom which they had to explain to the rest of the class. Next year I shall include more challenges as these were really popular and helped the pupils to find their way around the school. I intend to get the pupils to write their own challenges. |
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To download the Code Book on CDRom -
Click
here For the Challenges - Click here For the letter sent home to parents - Click here For the Cover Page for pupil handouts - Click here For a copy of the exercises - Click here For the exercises with the answers - Click here For the Challenges with the answers - Click here For the school map I used with the challenges - Click here |
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Simon Singh has a 20 minute video clip which can be downloaded
free from Teachers TV if you register (free) -
Click
here The Code Book (ISBN
1-85702-889-9) by Simon Singh This can be integrated by entering pupils into the Cipher Challenge which is open to Year 10/11 pupils and begins in September. Click here The Cipher Challenge has issued a Teachers Pack click here For other resources on codes and ciphers click here |
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