Monthly Archives: March 2019

Mar 31 2019

Differential Equations

Subject Content - Differential Equations Maths

Subject content Mathematics: Differential Equations

Differential Equations - Subject Content - Further Mathematics

Subject content Further Mathematics: Differential Equations

The study of Differential Equations is part of the prescribed core content of A Level further mathematics; this prescribed core comprising approximately 50% of each examination board’s content.

There are some very useful resources on this subject, particularly needed for further mathematics, where for many teachers they will be teaching content new on the specification.

Differential Equations - Check in test OCR B

OCR MEI Further Maths- Differential Equations Check in test

Teaching the MEI OCR specification, I do find the Delivery Guides and Check in tests useful, these provide both teaching guidance and example questions.

Differential Equations - Dr Frost example

Dr Frost – Differential Equations

On Dr Frost’s excellent site you will find resources on Differential Equations, see Chapter 11, Integration for Mathematics and Chapters 7 and 8 on Further Mathematics.

We can use a little technology to check solutions to Differential Equations using WolframAlpha. The slides here illustrate the syntax for first and second order differential equations. Examples like this and more are available from WolframAlpha: Examples for Differential Equations.

Differential Equations on Slideshare.

On the subject of Technology, we can have a look at Edexcel’s helpful guide with links to numerous GeoGebra files: A Guide to using GeoGebra when teaching AS and A Level Mathematics.which includes Solving Differential Equations.

Differential Equations - Edexcel GeoGebra

Pearson Secondary Maths – Solving Differential Equations

Notes and examples on Differential Equations.

Mar 24 2019

Mathematical Miscellany #27

From Access Maths, a brilliant selection of 90 Algebra Questions, Progressive Overload-Algebra is ideal for revision.

Have a look at all the other Access Maths revision resources too.

TES Resources
From one of my favourite resource authors, try Building Blocks from Andy Lutwyche.

Building Blocks for Bearings

A great idea, Andy!

A Level Practice Papers

CrashMaths gold

CrashMaths Edexcel Practice AS paper – gold

A recent addition from CrashMaths, Gold Edexcel AS Practice papers.

ATM Open Resources
For, activities, videos and more, have a look at ATM’s Open Resources. ATM provides many free resources on their website for teachers to download or use online in the classroom. There are many free resources available, note the menu on the right, these are excellent in their own right and also provide an excellent way of seeing what ATM has to offer. I do like GeoBoard tasks, try for example Board Task 3B.

If you like GeoBoards, see GeoBoard Activities, where I have given information on free online GeoBoards and resources.

Try ATM’s Puzzle Page, where you will find many examples of their puzzles, or get some free posters for your walls.

On the subject of Geometry, have a look at Don Stewards great slides from his recent London ATM/MA session. https://donsteward.blogspot.com/2019/03/geometry-session.html?m=1.

I’m looking forward to attending the next session, Jonny Griffiths on Further Maths RISPS, https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-a-level-further-maths-special-with-jonny-griffiths-tickets-56832977967

A Level (16+) Examination Materials
A very popular page is the Edexcel page in the A Level reform series; this has been updated and checked.

Edexcel new teaching materials

Edexcel frequently publishes new material, keep an eye on new publications by changing the Sort By filter to ‘Latest’. Check Teaching and Learning materials.
also Exam Materials and Specification and Sample Assessments.

Edexcel Model Answers for Sample Assessment materials

Edexcel Model Answers – Core Pure Further Mathematics

Looking at the latest Teaching and Learning materials we see for example recent February and March publications including very welcome Model answers for Further Mathematics Sample assessment materials. The content of Core Pure for Further Mathematics is common to all the examination boards, so a very useful document for any Further Mathematics teacher.

The latest Exam Materials include, for teachers, A Level Mathematics Mock papers and with common content for all examination boards, a very useful source of questions. (The same is true of course for AQA and OCRA and OCRB).

GeoGebra Scientific Calculator App
See the Calculators page for further information on Casio and Texas Instruments calculators.

Geogebra Scientific Calculator

GeoGebra has announced the release of their new free GeoGebra Scientific Calculator apps for tablets and phones.

The online calculator is here and you can get apps for iPhone & iPad: Scientific Calculator in App Store and Android: Scientific Calculator in Play Store.

There are several Scientific Calculator tutorials available.

Mar 17 2019

Have you seen…?#5

From MEI, the latest in the Sumaze series, this time a fun educational puzzle game aimed at 4-7-year-olds. This has been added to my Apps page which includes some personal favourites. Visit sumaze.co.uk for more information and links to all the apps in the series.

Dr Frost Full Coverage A level

Dr Frost – full coverage revision worksheets

From Dr Frost, additional really useful A Level Full Coverage Revision Worksheets.
Adding to his GCSE and IGCSE collections, Dr Frost now has an A Level series intended to “provide a single example of each of the variants of a type of question within a particular topic, rather than to provide multiple questions of exactly the same type to practise a single concept; the emphasis is broad coverage, collated from a huge database of past paper exam questions.”

#Have you seen…? is one of a series of short posts, simply to quickly provide links to interesting information and/or resources; a subset of the Mathematical Miscellany series.

 

Mar 16 2019

Maths Week London

Maths Week London

I was delighted to attend the recent launch event of ‘Maths Week London’ with teachers, educationalists and The Mayor’s Fund for London which is a social mobility charity, supporting young Londoners from low-income backgrounds. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is their patron.

Maths Week London, which will take place from 10-14 June 2019, is set to become an annual event dedicated to improving children’s attitudes towards maths and inspiring more pupils, teachers and parents to improve their confidence in the teaching and learning of the subject. The event will also promote maths as an essential skill in paving the way for every career path.

Due to the huge success of ‘Maths Week Ireland’ where Maths Week began in May 2006 and ‘Maths Week Scotland’, held for the first time in 2017, organisers, Sumdog, are now replicating this event throughout London and are calling for as many schools and teachers as possible to get involved.

The evening kicked off with an introduction from Kim Chaplain, Director of Charitable Portfolio at the Mayor’s Fund for London, who introduced the origins of Maths Week London: “Current attitudes that we have as a society towards maths is encouraging children to give up on the subject too early. The impact this has on later life can have detrimental effects. Therefore, there needs to be more support for the way maths is taught and learnt, in order to strengthen engagement, increase attainment and improve the life chances of all children. The Mayor’s Fund for London is delighted to be partnering with Maths Week London to raise awareness throughout London, and nationally, to change these attitudes and encourage more children to enjoy maths.”

Kim referred to the recently published Cambridge University report examining the nature and origins of Maths Anxiety. An aim of Maths Week is to turn Maths into something that is not frightening.

Simon Pile, Assistant Head of Anson Primary, and partner school of Maths Week London said: “At Anson Primary School, we recognise the importance of making maths come alive in the classroom in order to inspire and engage our students.

“In June, our year 6 pupils will create their own business in the form of a market stall which they’ll run each lunchtime across the week. Considering costs, profits, design and advertising, pupils will learn about the economic viability of a business and will develop key collaboration skills as they work with local businesses. We’re really excited to see how they get on!”

Schools who sign up will be given access to an online resource hub which includes starter packs, ideas and maths activities for teachers and parents to use with students. Additionally, there will be free events taking place throughout the week, a competition for students and grants of up to £200 available to schools in areas of high deprivation.

Andrea Carr, Chairman of Sumdog, said: “We have already seen the huge impact that Maths Week has had throughout Scotland and Ireland with over 80,000 pupils taking part in Maths Week Scotland last year. We want to share that success by bringing Maths Week to London in 2019. We are looking to involve teachers, parents and children from across the capital in a week of maths events and activities, with the aim of changing attitudes towards mathematics and motivating young people.”

Maths Week London PartnersMaths Week London (@MathsWeekLDN on Twitter) is supported by several organisations including The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (note their free resource with questions based on the London Underground network) and the Mathematical Association.

Mar 10 2019

Mathematical Miscellany #26

Chalkface Classwiz Simulator
From The Chalkface comes a brilliant spreadsheet that emulates the statistical functions of the Casio ClassWiz. The spreadsheet includes details which allow students to interpret each of the different modes, the List function is also included.
Direct link to the calculator. I have added this to the ClassWiz page, one of the Lesson Planning series.

Jack Brown teaching vdeosJack Brown has now completed teaching videos for all three papers of Edexcel’s sample assessment material. A very busy man – thank you, Jack! The easiest way to navigate Jack’s thousands of videos covering the complete A Level specification is through his website, TLMaths.com.

Jack is also creating Further Maths teaching videos; you can use this link to take you directly to his live Google Doc that has the new A-Level Further Maths specification and the teaching videos Jack has made so far. I see many useful videos on Proof, including the use of Induction for proofs of divisibility. I have added these resources to the Further Maths series of pages, see Teaching Resources.

On the subject of Further Maths teaching resources, thank you to Tom Button for sharing MEI GeoGebra Tasks for AS/A Level Further Maths
From The GeoGebra Institute of MEI, Use of GeoGebra in Further Maths: examples.
MEI GeoGebra Institute Further Maths
These can also be found on the Teaching Resources page for Further Maths (still a work in progress, this is being updated regularly.) Note also the addition of AMSP Resources. You can register your school free with AMSP for many benefits and resources. A free student account will enable students to access a comprehensive set of short videos to support the learning of AS/A level Further Mathematics.

Maths4Everyone
David Morse has announced his new website. This is an outstanding and comprehensive set of resources for Primary and Secondary. Note What’s New at the top of the site where you can keep an eye on the latest additions to the collection. The Click-to-zoom feature of the Worksheet collection works so well for display on screen.
Maths4Everyone David Morse

OCR Check-in testOCR has several new Check in test resources for both GCSE and AS and A Level Further Maths (Specification A). Check in tests are also available for A Level Mathematics and for Further Maths Syllabus B. For Further Maths, scroll down the page to see the comprehensive set of Delivery Guides and Check in tests. These resources are included in the Further Maths teaching resources collection.