Monthly Archives: April 2012

Apr 29 2012

Spirograph

As a child, a favourite toy was my Spirograph with which I could generate endless pretty curves! Speaking of my favourite toy, there is a wonderful electronic version available.


The Nrich problem ‘Making Maths: Planet Paths‘ challenges students to draw some planet paths using a Spirograph. In case there is no Spirograph to hand they give instructions for making a simple one.

Spirograph
Spirograph – Desmos

Alternatively, try an online version. Try Spirograph on the Desmos Graphing calculator.

Spirograph - Autograph Activity
Spirograph – Autograph Activity by Owen Elton

Owen Elton has written an excellent Spirograph Autograph activity (see Simon’s comment below) and also available on the Autograph player a very impressive 3D Spirograph!

On GeoGebra, there are various applets available, for example:

Apr 22 2012

Countdown

A game of Countdown is a great way to start or end a lesson.

You can download an excellent free program for the Numbers Game from Chris Farmer’s CSF Software site.

For a low-tech solution print out the Make a number puzzles with solutions from Brain Food.
For other number puzzles see the Number, one of the Puzzles and Games series of pages.

For a new challenge why not try Coundown with Fractions from Nrich? See also the Nrich Countdown collection.

Apr 15 2012

Desmos Delights!

Regular readers will know I am a huge fan of the wonderful Desmos graphing calculator.

Take a look at the home page for some brilliant examples.
Click on any of the graphs to explore further and have a look at the equations used.
I have found this instructive for learning more about the syntax one can use.

For example, one can plot individual points: (click the image for the Desmos page)

…or restrict the range:

I thought I would create a slideshow for my students showing the different types of graph which they should be familiar with at GCSE (taken at age 15-16 in the UK).
Each slide links to a Desmos page where they can use the sliders to explore families of curves.

This has also been uploaded to Mathematics for Students.

Apr 8 2012

Happy Easter

Happy Easter 2017! (Click the link and WolframAlpha will tell you more than you wanted to know about Easter Sunday!)

Since it’s a holiday we should be relaxing! Why not try the excellent Set Game – a daily puzzle?

For many more puzzles and games see the Puzzles and Games series of pages:

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.