Mathematical Miscellany #52

Congratulations to Corbettmaths – 200 million views. 200 million views because it is so good; certainly a go-to site. 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.
Corbett Maths – A Bit of Everything practice papers

I do like the collection of Practice Papers, note the Revision resources, including A Bit of Everything Papers; the Foundation papers with 116 questions provide very comprehensive syllabus coverage! Each paper includes a contents list with the relevant teaching video.

You can also subscribe to Corbettmaths on YouTube.


Returning on 21st June is Calculator Crunch from MEI. To quote MEI:

On each weekday from 21 June – 1 July we will tweet an engaging question for children to work on – that’s nine questions in total. They all involve using a calculator (basic or scientific) to solve an interesting problem. The problems are designed to deepen children’s mathematical thinking skills in a fun way.

Simply follow @MEIMaths on Twitter and get involved by using the hashtag #CalculatorCrunch.

Calculator Crunch 2020

You can still access all the 2019 and 2020 Calculator Crunch questions.


Matt Woodfine continues to update the brilliant Maths White Board; I see new content added recently, Stem and leaf diagrams and Equation of a circle; I have linked to the recall boards in each case, one of my favourite features of the site is the extensive collection of retrieval practice boards.

Equation of a circle Maths White Board

Also now available is his Term Planner, you can watch the tutorial video to find out more. The planner will allow you to quickly access specific resources from the site.

Maths White Board is easily available from the Use of Technology menu – see tab at the top of the screen.


New KS3 resources are available form Pearson Edexcel. Go to Pearson Edexcel’s Teaching and learning materials and look under key stage 3 support.

Pearson Edexcel-Teaching and-Learning Materials

Data Science Course

As you can see from Tom Button, MEI’s Introduction to Data Science Short Course is now freely available from MEI.

The course uses the large data sets for all the examination boards, note too this very useful page from MEI on the large data sets. Not only are there links to all the large data sets but resources using Desmos, Excel and GeoGebra.

Check this playlist on YouTube of the MEI large data set videos.

Teacher webinars are all available online; see Data Science Teacher Guidance.

Diagnostic Question a Day

From Craig Barton, look at his latest site, DQaDay.

Really get your students thinking about these questions, not just answering them correctly but thinking about the questions you can see in the image – can you explain the mistakes and how can you be convincing that the incorrect responses are incorrect.

Diagnostic Question a Day – Craig Barton

You can search for questions in various ways including the clear tags. Each question very usefully shows the spread of answers on Diagnostic Questions, a link to the question and a link to the quiz from which the question is taken. Check Labelling right-angles triangles for example.

Looking for questions by topic I really like the Collections.

There is extensive help available on Diagnostic Questions including these Help Videos.

Mathematical Miscellany #50

Dr Austin Maths

I came across Amanda Austin’s site recently, her resources site, Dr Austin Maths has a very comprehensive collection. Aimed at teachers of GCSE and IGCSE, each of the many clearly indexed resources has several examples, all very clearly and attractively presented. . Editable Word documents are provided as well as pdf versions and all the answers are provided. With copying in mind the practice strips are very efficient with two to a page.


Transum Mathematics

A site I so often recommend is Transum Mathematics, I noticed recently a useful addition to the Ratio activity, a new Level 6 has been added with problem solving questions. I noticed this in the recent Transum newsletter; useful practice at problems students can find challenging.


World Book Day has proved popular this year with many contributions to reading lists for Maths, Mathematics reading lists are always useful, so I have added all the Mathematics reading lists from the World Book Day post to this page, Mathematics Book Recommendations.


One to watch out for this coming week….

NCETM Primary curriculum prioritisation materials

In Linking Curriculum Learning to Careers I mentioned the very valuable Where maths meets the world of work. from AMSP. These videos showcase the maths in different careers; each video is paired with a resource for the classroom or for use online, so students can get a real taste of what the job may entail. A comprehensive set of resources is available including lesson plans. Keep an eye on this excellent growing collection.

AMSP – Where Maths Meets the World of Work
Gatsby Benchmark 4

Watch out for MEI’s Maths Mondays!
If that is a puzzle, a little further reading.


March 14th is the International Day of Mathematics. The theme for 2021 is Mathematics for a Better World. Also celebrated in many countries as Pi Day because that date is written as 3/14 in some countries.

Looking at the suggestions to decorate an International Day of Mathematics event note this Mathematical Origami from the amazing Mathigon site.

Mathigon-Origami

Note the resources and competition from MEI for the International Day of Mathematics. In the run up to Easter you will find a chocolate theme on the AMSP webpage. Three activities are provided, each aimed at a different age group, Comprehensive documentation and teaching resources with teacher notes is provided for each activity.

AMSP – International Day of Mathematics Resources

I’ll end with some brilliant student art shared by Libo Valencia, a timely reminder how appropriate this kind of activity can be.