Tag Archives: equations

Oct 19 2013

From Year 7 to Year 13…

Such a busy week…

But I have written a weekly blog post since January 2011 when I made a New Year resolution to write a blog post every week, a habit I don’t intend to stop, so this week I simply offer two slideshows I created for my students recently.

With Year 7 (age 11-12) we have been studying Algebra. When solving equations, I included for a class of high ability students, equations with the unknown on both sides. Having given them one homework where they were exploring various resources for practising solving equations, a sudent asked in a comment on our homework blog how to use Duncan Keith’s excellent linear equation calculator for practising this type of equation:

The slideshow below shows how to use the calculator to solve equations where the unknown is on both sides.

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At the other end of the school, with Year 13 I had completed the various integration techniques required for our exam specification. Aware that students sometimes muddle differentiation and integration, I started the last lesson of the series with one of my ‘self-checks’ / mini tests to see what they could easily recall. I have stressed the importance of knowing the basics with this group. The questions I used are presented in the following slide show – a sort of KS5 mental Calculus test!