London Olympics 2012

Free Resources

Video Clips including past and present Olympic athletes talking about Challenge 2012 and the importance of maths and science. - Click here

321 Go - Lots of problems from this BBC series, which are posed via a video clip, all set within a sporting context - Click here

Interactive Graph - This tracks the performance of different countries across the last 100 years, sort by Geography or number of medals - Click here

The Maths behind the Olympic Games

What's the connection between the Olympic Games and Maths? The material linked to this webpage provides a wealth of resources for 14-16 year old students to investigate the links between maths and many different sporting activities

Activities

The mathematics of sport
Balance and inertia
Weight and strength
Winning scores

Project Work

Predicting the future

What's the chance of winning?

Speed and accuracy

Balance and strength

Range of nrich resources - sorted by Key Stage - Click here

Filling an Olympic Swimming Pool (Mike Johnson) - Click here

Scoring in the Decathlon (Substituting into formulae) - http://nrich.maths.org/8346

Lands End to John O'Groats (Maths Mystery) - http://nrich.maths.org/7571

What makes a good Triathlete?- http://nrich.maths.org/8061

Suitable for Level 5/6

Match the Matches
Decide which charts and graphs represent the number of goals two football teams scored in fifteen matches.

Medal Muddle

Countries from across the world competed in a sports tournament. Can you devise an efficient strategy to work out the order in which they finished?

Olympic Measures

These Olympic quantities have been jumbled up! Can you put them back together again?

Suitable for Level 6/7

Track Design

Where should runners start the 200m race so that they have all run the same distance by the finish?

Speed-time Problems at the Olympics

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to race against Usain Bolt?

Who's the Best?

Which countries have the most naturally athletic populations?

The Olympic Torch Tour

Imagine you had to plan the tour for the Olympic Torch. Is there an efficient way of choosing the shortest possible route?

Training Schedule

The heptathlon is an athletic competition consisting of 7 events. Can you make sense of the scoring system in order to advise a heptathlete on the best way to reach her target?

Olympic Logic

Can you use your powers of logic and deduction to work out the missing information in these sporty situations?

Now and Then

Look at the changes in results on some of the athletics track events at the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948. What will the results be in 2012?

SHOW�/World is a Mapping Worlds initiative to provide efficient and comprehensive access to statistical data on world issues. You select a subject from the top menu and watch the countries on the map change their size. Instead of land mass, the size of each country represents the data for that subject - both its share of the total and absolute value. The menu is divided into five categories: people, planet, business, politics and living, each with their own sub-menu, thus encompassing a range of global issues. By selecting Download/embed you can obtain the data in the form of an Excel file and investigate further or produce your own visualisations - http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/

Maths and Sport: Countdown to the Games

'Maths and Sport: Countdown to the Games' is an exciting new project from the award-winning Millennium Mathematics Project at the University of Cambridge.

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games offer an extraordinary and exciting opportunity to explore mathematics and science at work in real-world contexts. To celebrate London 2012 we're therefore developing free online mathematical articles and activities exploring maths and science through the Olympic and Paralympic Games, aimed at a wide audience from school students and their teachers to members of the public. We'll continue to publish new content throughout the run-up to the 2012 Games - http://sport.maths.org/content/

Create Maths

These Cre8ate maths activities require the use of averages, ranges, percentages, histograms, stem and leaf displays, pie charts, and tables to make comparisons, interpretations, and conclusions.

They also provide real data about pupils for analysis. Performing the �How far can you �?� events in the classroom will engage pupils, enable data collection and motivate data investigations. Cotton wool shot put and triple jump from a standing start are the focus of the class activities together with measuring foot length and pupil height. Further possible investigations include: Girls shot put further than boys? Boys triple jump further than girls? Which hand is best for shot put? What percentage of the triple jump distance is the hop? Which is the most loved Olympic sport at school? Which Olympic sport do pupils want to do more of?

http://www.cre8atemaths.org.uk/health-and-social-care/classroom-olympics

SportAtSchool

Launched in 2011 SportAtSchool is based on the successful international CensusAtSchool project and has been inspired by the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. Like CensusAtSchool SportAtSchool uses an online questionnaire to capture learners� data, the resultant real data can then be used with our resources and lesson plans. As usual these are free, downloadable and contain a variety of classroom activities.

Possible Starting Points:

Olympic Torch Route and Estimated Times	Olympic Rings: Permutations	Real Life Graphs: Throwing or Running
Speed - Distance - Time	Coordinate Logos	Percentage Improvement for events
Probability: Medals, Events or Nationalities	Awarding Points for Gold, Silver or Bronze	Statistical Graphs
Converting Units	Dimensions of Tracks: Shot Putt - Courts	Location of Past Venues

NGfL Cymru resources prepared in advance of the 2008 Olympics - http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/2007-08/maths/olympic_maths/

Project Britain: The build up to the 2012 London Olympics provides an excellent opportunity to engage students all round the world in learning about Britain and the countries within (England, Scotland and Wales). Here you can find some suggested activity ideas for across the curriculum - http://projectbritain.com/olympics/teachingresources.html

Sport at School: Eliminating False Data - Activity      Data
                         Exploring Pulse Rates - Activity
                         Guess the Olympian Card Match - Activity
                         Olympic Quiz - Questions      Solutions
                         Sport at School Questionnaire
                         Personal Data - Data Cards
                         Website: www.sportatschool.org.uk

Resources to Purchase

Active Enrichment: Sports Themed Activities Across the Curriculum [Ring-bound]

Active Enrichment: Sports Themed Activities across the Curriculum, offers 100 sports-themed extension activities for use across the curriculum, using students' enjoyment of sport to enrich learning throughout their secondary school

ISBN-10: 1905538251
ISBN-13: 978-1905538256