Mathematical Miscellany #56

Featuring…

On Corbett Maths as well as the brilliant 5-a-day resources the videos and worksheets are also excellent. Do check the ‘More’ menu also, where you will find additional resources including a very comprehensive set of videos and worksheets for level 2 Further Maths.

Corbettmaths – Algebraic Proof, level 2 Further-Maths.

On the subject of proof, I will be publishing a very comprehensive post on teaching and learning proof next week.

I featured Corbett Maths earlier this year when he celebrated 200 million website views. Corbett Maths is such a go-to site – I use this a great deal and recommend it regularly to students. John Corbett has been busy – note his massive improvements to the brilliant 5-a-days.


Stoke Maths

Thanks to @MathsWithMsB I came across Stoke Maths MEP Starters.

These are very attractively presented high-quality resources. Looking at the Spot the Mistake PowerPoints for example, as you can see in the image below there are a great collection of questions that include full answers. It’s great to see Mechanics and Statistics collections.

The revision question starters provide very useful question sets.

I have added this to my Starters collection under Advanced Starters.

Stoke Maths – Spot the Mistake

Also from Ben Bently, a collection of low stakes quizzes using questions from Diagnostic questions.


Census at School – Ireland

Hunting for a resource I once used from Census at School (the UK site is no longer available), I found it on Census at School – Ireland. Cleaning Up Your Data. Many Statistics resources are available on the site – note the drop-down menu for the resources collection.

I found it again – on STEM Learning which happily has a whole collection of the Census At School resources.


From AQA Maths, check their excellent GCSE Maths Focus on success modular Teacher Training packs. Looking at the pack on Ratio for example you will find activities and discussion prompts on switching representations, combining ratios, problem-solving with ratio and dividing quantities in a given ratio.

AQA Teacher Training pack – Ratio

Mathematical Miscellany #55

Featuring:

In Mathematical Miscellany #54 I featured two excellent resources from Curriculum for Wales; a third is now available, “The Foundations of Algebra” is suitable for progression step 3 of the new #CurriculumForWales (age 11). The workbook contains chapters on patterns, commutativity, distributivity & associativity.

Foundations of Algebra – Curriculum for Wales

I do like the above exercise which as the Teacher’s Guide acknowledges is based on Don Steward’s work, directed number arithmetic speed up and Chris McGrane’s Alternative representation of integers. A further useful resource for such an exercise is Jonathan Hall’s Directed Number MCQ Generator on MathsBot with which you can generate all the addition and subtraction multiple-choice questions you want; choose between Counters on or off.

Foundations of Algebra – Teacher’s Guide

As with the other two resources, a very comprehensive teacher’s guide is also available. You can see the contents here, this resource with its carefully chosen and varied activities and exercises will help students with the foundations of Algebra.


PhET Sims

On the subject of negative numbers, from PhET simulations we have another excellent resource in their latest addition to the Mathematics collection. To use the number line as a model for ordering real numbers and also to illustrate operations with negative numbers we can use the excellent, Number Line: Distance. Also available are Number Line: Integers, and Number Line: Operations. All are excellent for students to explore.

This resource has been added to my post on Negative Numbers which looks at some resources to develop understanding of operations with positive and negative integers and exercises for practice.


A popular post on this blog is on Venn Diagrams, first written in 2016 this has recently been checked and updated with some new resources including always excellent resources from Amanda Austin on Dr Austin Maths. Included in her Probability resources you will find an excellent section on Set Notation and Venns.

Dr Austin Maths

GeoGebra retweeted this from Javier Cayetano Rod

…the translation:

“Adding some leaves to the stem of a flower can be the perfect excuse to talk about translations and turns in space @debora_pereiro . Added to the flower generator in @geogebrahttps://geogebra.org/m/duqthjva

Which in turn led me to this amazing GeoGebra collection, Flowers 3D, Author: Deborah Pereiro Carbajo.

Have look at Flowers from Curves, simply brilliant!

Flowers from curves – Deborah Pereiro Carbajo

Explore the collection – you could be a while!

Complete Maths has made Robert Smith’s session “Web Autograph, a First Look” freely available


Highlight equivalence – Math Whiteboard

I wrote earlier this year on the excellent Math Whiteboard. This is completely free to use; If you create a whiteboard you can then get a link for that whiteboard which you can share. When I have created a whiteboard I then save a second copy so I can always return to the original.

With an individual subscription ( currently $15 for a year) it is possible to access all the features of Fluid Math including as an authoring tool for creating Math Whiteboard activities. It is also possible to save your activities.

A new feature is available – the ability to create answer boxes to check for correct answers. You can see examples using this feature here.

Venn Diagrams

gcse-content

The DfE document describing the GCSE Mathematics subject content is an excellent starting point for checking new content, all exam boards must include this content.

Note that only the more highly attaining students will be assessed on the content identified by bold type. The highest attaining students will develop confidence and competence with the bold content. See page 4 of the DfE document.

There are many excellent resources for teaching Venn Diagrams; investigate this collection.


Dr Austin Maths

From Amanda Austin, on Dr Austin Maths, included in her Probability resources you will find an excellent section on Set Notation and Venns.

Corbettmaths

Try these Practice Questions with worked answers available from Corbettmaths.

On Diagnostic Questions – Probability with Venn Diagrams.

Diagnostic questions now has over 21000 questions on Mathematics including wonderful collections of examination questions. The site is completely free (and promises to remain so). Plenty of help is available to help you learn how to use the site.


CIMT Venn Diagrams

CIMT is one of my favourite sites for a very good reason – when I want additional examples for any topic at any level I can always find them on CIMT! Venn Diagrams are no exception to this, you can find Sets and Venn DiagramsSet Notation and Logic and Venn Diagrams in the student interactive resources and the text chapter on Logic from the Year 7 text here; in sections 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 of the text you will find examples and exercises on Set Notation and Venn diagrams. See also the additional Teacher resources for this unit (Unit 1, Logic) such as Additional exercises are also available as are Aural Tests. Other teacher resources include slides and Revision Tests (you will need the CIMT password for the Revision Tests).

Problem from section 1.4 CIMT Venn Diagrams
aqa-bridging-the-gap
AQA – Bridging the Gap

From AQA’s excellent Bridging the Gap resources, Sets and Venn Diagrams is superb, also see the OCR resources, from OCR’s Check In tests, see Combined events and probability diagrams. For further information on the changes which were made to Probability at GCSE see this post.


Transum – Venn Totals

From Transum try Venn Totals 4 different levels of exercises that can be checked are available. Level 1 – Reading information from a Venn diagram containing two intersecting sets. Level 2 – Reading information from a Venn diagram containing three intersecting sets. Level 3 – Adding information to a Venn diagram containing three intersecting sets. Level 4 – Adding information to a Venn diagram containing three intersecting sets with some problem solving required. There are also exam-style questions, to see the worked solutions a subscription is required.

Also from Transum, try Venn Paint.

Level 2 has 3 set Venn Diagrams. Exam Questions are included also (solutions are provided for subscribers).


From David Morse on maths4everyone, choose sets from the drop-down menu on his GCSE Practice Questions by topic, and also from Worksheets and Review Sheets, note that you can choose KS3 or KS4.


From piximaths there are several excellent resources on Venn Diagrams.

Andy Lutwyche

On TES from Andy Lutwyche, there are several high-quality resources – including a resource from the Clumsy Clive series.


Nrich too can always be relied on to provide resources – a search on ‘venn’ returns these resources.

From teachitMaths, try Venn diagram dominoes (pdf versions of all the resources on this site are free), there are also other resources available from the site.


mathisfun-questions

However, note that some of these questions refer to ‘difference’, examination specifications should be checked for notation, for example AQA’s helpful teaching guidance includes notation such as this illustration.

AQA Teaching Guidance
AQA Teaching Guidance
vivax

For a useful way of displaying these regions on Venn Diagrams you could use the demonstration from the Venn Diagrams tutorial on Vivax Solutions. Geogebra or WolframAlpha can also be very easily used as shown near the end of this post.


Included in Jonny Griffiths wonderful RISPS – see RISP 10.

www.risps.co.uk

From AMSP, have a look at Vexing Venn Diagrams these resources and the Maths Feast Set Theory task.

From Craig Barton – see this whole collection of rich tasks with Venn diagrams.

venn-rich-tasks

Underground Mathematics

To really challenge your students combine Venn Diagrams and Algebra and try this review question from Underground Mathematics. (From a 1969 MEI O Level Additional Mathematics paper.

search finds more problems – all resources on Underground Mathematics include complete documentation including suggestions, a full solution, printable materials and more.

Perhaps try Can we find how many boys study French, Latin and German? or Quadratic Solving Sorter – not a traditional Venn diagram problem but certainly a diagram as in the possible solution presented is a very good idea.


These three interactives from Shodor are a good introduction to Venn diagrams:
Venn DiagramsShape Sorter and Triple Venn Diagram Shape Sorter 

With the Triple Venn Diagram Shape Sorter you can either set the rules or guess the rules by selecting the appropriate button:


WolframAlpha can be used to illustrate Venn Diagrams.
The slideshow here shows several examples.


Alternatively – try GeoGebra.


On a lighter note – a Twitter conversation on a fun idea!
Twitter Venn

If you want to create your own there are plenty of tools to use – there is a good summary here on Cometdocs.

New Scientist Gallery - Venn Diagrams

…and to take Venn Diagrams to their extremes have a look at these wonderful images from New Scientist!

Starters

Revised and updated in the Lesson Planning Series of pages (and watch this space for more on that series) is the Starters page.

Starting with ‘Bell Work‘ for a calm and prompt lesson start, starters are suggested from Year 7 to Advanced Level.

The Starters page includes an index with the following categories

  • Collections
  • Retrieval Practice
  • Challenges
  • Number
  • Algebra
  • Advanced Level Starters

The Starters – Posts page includes resources that can work well at the beginning or end of a lesson.
An appropriate puzzle or game can provide a good starter activity.

Starters – Posts page

From Year 7 …

NCTM Illuminations Pan Balance – Shapes

…to Advanced Level

Transum Mathematics

…and everything in between

Collections

Andy Lutwyche – Clumsy Clive series

Retrieval Practice

Maths White Board – Last White Board

Number

Manipulation
Starters – Number

Number Operations – from the Number Starter section

Algebra

Advanced Level Starters

crashMaths Skills Check
CRASHMaths AS Maths Key Skills Checks

Mudd Math Fun Facts

Mudd Maths Fun Facts

This searchable collection, Mudd Math Fun Facts from Harvey Mudd College Math Department has resources that can make great starter activities, perhaps try Squares Ending in 5 and Multiplication by 11 both made excellent starters. I have looked at proofs for these with students as well as enjoying the mental Maths tricks!

It is possible to search by topic, difficulty level and keywords.

Examples to try:

You will find more lightning arithmetic suggestions on the site.