Daily Archives: April 26, 2020

Apr 26 2020

Mathematical Miscellany #40

Jonny Griffiths Further RISPS

Jonny Griffiths investigative activities for the pure A Level Mathematics classroom are well known (details are included in the A Level resources pages, see RISPS.  He has now published Further Risps, forty rich tasks for the pure Further Mathematics classroom. In these unusual times Jonny has generously made the pdf version available free from www.further-risps.co.uk.

Two editions are available – a hard copy or pdf version. The pdf not only provides the forty problems but also full teachers notes for each. The notes for each task begin with the topic or topics covered, identify the type of task, for example, introductory and state any preliminary knowledge required. This is a valuable resource for teaching Further Mathematics.

Investigating the first Risp on Matrices at the session this certainly would help students with fluency in finding the determinant of a matrix. Rich tasks like this can provide students with a greater understanding than just a traditional exercise and will hopefully stick for longer!

This has been added to the Teaching Resources section, part of the Further Maths series of pages.

Perhaps a good time to remind readers of all the Risp activities available.

RISPS
From Jonny Griffiths try RISPS (Rich Starting Points), Open-ended investigative activities for the A Level Pure Mathematics classroom. On the home page  note the helpful index by topic, choose a personal favourite of mine, Risp 21 Advanced Arithmagons for example and you will see not only the task but also teachers notes.

Also from Jonny Griffiths his companion sites on Statistics and Carom-Maths -activities to bridge the gap between A Level and University. Have a look at Carom-Maths -activities for any of your students going on to study Mathematics at University this year.

You can find a resource collection  from Jonny Griffiths on TES Resources.

Making Statistics Vital has some tasks which could be excellent for the current A Level specification, look at the this task on World Wide Statistics for example which includes the task with answers and a spreadsheet with data for 191 countries.

Making Statistics Vital


On the subject of Transition, this time from GCSE to A Level, Colin Hegarty is releasing free lessons recorded on YouTube (and live daily) to help students prepare for A Level, Mathematics.

The announcement here was made on 22nd April, the live lesson was broadcast at 2pm that same day.
Hegarty A Level

ALutwyche InequalitiesRegular readers will know that one of my favourite TES resource authors is Andy Lutwyche, Andy has added more resources recently, have a look at his latest, always high quality resources. So many good resources – I’ll definitely be using these!

Same or Different?
Robert Kaplinsky shared ‘Same or Different’ from Brian Bushart.

What is the same what is different

Brian Bushart has created the site Same or Different which is for supporting mathematical argument in the elementary grades. Have a look, at the About page for further information on the Same or Different? routine

Set GameOne of the comments to the above tweet on Same or Different referred to the Set Game, I had the same thought when seeing images such as the triangles on the left above. The Set Game is a daily puzzle from The New York Times. How many sets can you find? Click ‘How to play’ for the rules.

Perhaps a good exercise for all our students at home.

CPDI have mentioned CPD in posts recently, Hannah (@missradders)  has helpfully shared her latest padlet which has many resources for free CPD for teachers.