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!

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