Don Steward has an extensive collection of activities to really make your students think and learn. Note the helpful topics menu on the right-hand side of the page. The example shown above can be found under Algebra Misconceptions.

With changes to examinations at both GCSE (UK examination taken at age 16) and A Level (UK examination taken at age 18), all the examination boards are offering help and support for teachers and students. Many excellent resources are available.

Edexcel Teaching Resources

For example, we have Edexcel’s very helpful resources for teaching new content. For each topic, information, examples and exercises (with answers) are given.

Edexcel Resources

These resources are very helpful with plenty of examples and exercises, a very thorough treatment of each topic.

Edexcel – Interpreting gradients of straight lines

Note the menu on the left; you can easily navigate these resources choosing the Content type. Looking at Classroom tests, for example, you will find a complete collection of tests with answers by topic for both Foundation and Higher tiers.

Similarly, from AQA we have their very helpful Bridging the Gap resources. These resources by topic are also useful for ideas to teach younger students. Further outstanding resources from AQA including the wonderful Problem Solving resource are detailed on this AQA GCSE page.

OCR too provide us with many excellent teaching resources by topic.

The Check in tests are excellent. Consider the language of functions for example, the first questions could be used with students as young as Year 7. Full details of the Check in tests can be found in the Teachers’ Guide. Each test is of a similar format in that Questions 1-5 cover procedural calculations (AO1), questions 6-8 require the ability to reason and communicate mathematically (AO2) and questions 9-10 relate to problem solving tasks (AO3). There is also an extension task. Very usefully (thank you OCR) the Check in tests are also available in Word Format.

Searching for questions – part 1

This post is the second in a series of posts looking at sites where you can easily find resources by topic. For just the links in this series of posts, see this page which provides a useful list of such sites.

Nrich has extensive resources including problems, interactives and games. Full teachers’ notes are provided. The Resources for Teachers page has several useful links; note the curriculum mapping documents which suggest resources relating to the National Curriculum. There is a search by topic facility to find all the resources for a particular topic.

Nrich Secondary

CIMT– The Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching, from the University of Plymouth, an astonishing resource has free curriculum materials for all school-age students. For example, if we look at the Year 7 Course Material page as well as all the book chapters with their numerous worked examples and exercises there are also teachers’ resources including notes, slides, revision tests, activities and mental tests on each topic. The activities are varied and include investigative work.

CIMT Mental Test – Logic

From Steve Blades, see M4THS.com for age 14-18. This site has an extensive library of resources. A great feature of these resources is very efficient use of space so cutting copying costs. Keep scrolling down the page – there are a lot of resources!

Exercises & solutions on David Smith’s ‘The Maths Teacher’

David Smith’s The Maths Teacher site has a great collection of videos for both GCSE (age 14-16) and A Level (16-18). Transcripts are available for each lesson, also exercises with worked solutions. Many of the GCSE videos would also be useful for younger students. There are also videos and written solutions to some Legacy A Level papers.

Teachit Maths KS3 Percentages code breaker

Teachit Maths though a subscription site offers its entire collection of activities as pdfs free. I have found many high quality resources here for all ages. Look at this activity on quadratic functions for example – this should really help understanding.

From Transum, well known for its Maths Starter of the Day, note the complete index of starters including the topic of the starter. The Transum site is easy to navigate, there is a clear Topic Index for Teachers also, for students a Maths Map with numerous activities to support their learning. The example shown here is one of the Algebra Activities found on this page. See this post for further examlples of some excellent resources including Venn Diagrams and Systematic Listing Strategies.

Transum – Algebra

 

I thought it would be useful to put together a simple list of sites where you can easily find resources by topic.

For just the links in this series of posts, see this page which provides a useful list of great sites to search for resources by topic.

I want some questions on Sequences for Year 10 so I’ll use Sequences as an example.

On Diagnostic Questions, we can search all the Maths Questions. Under Algebra we will find Sequences. The questions are helpfully categorised as shown. For the links here to work, sign in to Diagnostic Questions

We can also use the excellent Quiz collections, do explore the variety available for all ages. The collections from the exam boards are so useful, for AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel, Higher and Foundation quizzes for Years 9, 10 and 11 are available. The UKMT collection includes themed topics at Junior, Intermediate and Senior level.

It is also possible to search all the Maths quizzes which have been created. As before, under Algebra we can find the Sequences quizzes.

Sequence Quizzes – Diagnostic Questions

On Craig Barton’s mrbartonmaths.com site, you can use his Maths Topics Index page.
Selecting Sequences for example gives a further choice, if we choose Linear Sequences, we find a treasure trove of sequences resources all conveniently in one place!

On DrFrostMaths.com we can browse all resources which include complete lessons as well as homework questions and assessments. Looking at Sequences we see resources for Year 7 through to GCSE/IGCSE Further Maths. Note also Dr Frost’s homework site.

From Jonathan Hall: mathsbot is superb. The home page provides a clear menu and the site is easy to navigate. Many of these resources allow you to generate questions by topic. See for example Differentiated questions and GCSE exam style questions.

The list of sites easily searchable for resources by topic can be found on this page and this will be added to in the next few days.

To be continued…

Wishing educators and students everywhere a very Happy New Year.

Visit the page Happy New Year for ideas for Mathematics classrooms.