Welcome to my 192
nd gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.
1. Hannah Kettle
Hannah Kettle is making worksheets and accompanying videos to review each unit of the GCSE Maths course. Unit 1 Higher (Number) is now on her website with the accompanying worksheet. Hannah has a great idea – these videos and resources would be brilliant for Year 10 or 11 cover lessons. Students make notes and review the first page while watching the video, before having a go at the second side on their own.
2. Durham Murder Mysteries
Hannah (@missradders) tweeted about how much her Year 8s loved the Durham Maths Mystery she used in an algebra lesson.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve blogged about these resources and I suspect that a lot of new teachers won’t have seen them before. If you like these check out Gems 96 where I shared some similar activities produced by Richard Perring.
3. MathsPad
MathsPad have shared some excellent new resources in their September Update including new chapters in their curriculum booklets.
There’s also new Arrange the Digits slides and worksheet and Proportion Tables slides and worksheet.
4. AS Level Tasks
Dr Austin shared some fantastic new AS level tasks at the end of the summer holidays. Check out her website draustinmaths.com for the full collection.
Through the #mathstoday hashtag on Bluesky (this is where maths teachers post daily highlights from their lessons) I’ve seen a number of other fantastic Year 12 tasks this week.
From Catriona (@catrionaagg), an algebra task where students are pushed to articulate their reasoning…
… and a lovely lesson on graph sketching.
@MrLevMaths shared a really interesting task on intersections, thinking about sketching and the discriminant.
Karen (@karenshancock) shared an index laws and algebra task with a good level of challenge.
Nathan (@nathanday) shared a lovely task on graph intersections and solving simultaneous equations.
Nathan also shared some Susan Wall tasks. When I first qualified as a teacher I went on a course on how to teach A level Maths and that’s where I was introduced to Susan Wall’s brilliant tasks – I’m a big fan. Here are some examples shared by Nathan:
I also spotted that Nathan has shared a helpful Edexcel grade boundaries tool for A level Maths and Further Maths where you can very easily see grade boundaries by module.
5. AS Level Statistics
Update
I’m looking forward to seeing lots of you at #mathsconf39 in London next month. I’ll be presenting on Don Steward’s wonderful resources, and I’ll be out for post-conference drinks on Saturday night.
It’s great to hear that MathsWorld is opening a discovery centre in London – I was totally unaware this was happening until my mum sent me an article about it! I can’t see anything on their website or on social media about this. Assuming the article is correct, this might be a future school trip destination for schools in and around London.
I’m so used to getting my maths news from social media, it surprises me when I see it elsewhere. Last week I also spotted an article about an Ada Lovelace statue being erected in Leicestershire. I’m a big fan of Ada Lovelace and will no doubt visit this statue one day when I’m in the area. It can be added to the list of mathematical stuff to visit in the UK, along with Turing’s statue in Manchester, Ramanujan’s plaque in Putney, the beautiful Penrose tiles outside the Andrew Wiles building in Oxford, Newton’s house in Grantham… as I write this list I realise that there are a great many mathematical things to see – perhaps there’s another blog post in this.
Finally, thank you to Hannah @neechmaths for posting something on Bluesky that made me laugh out loud… These are genuine Casio fx991CW calculator reviews on Amazon.
