Negative Number Codebreaker

I made this:

Negative Number Code Breaker[PDF]

It’s a simple worksheet where students find the answer to an addition, subtraction, multiplication or division sum and look it up in a grid. This then generates at letter. Once students have found all the answers their letters will spell something.

These kind of worksheets are quite fun. They take a list of questions and turn them into a puzzle, and they’re really easy to make.

You might want to show students the video below before starting the task.

This would set the atmosphere and make the lesson more themed and engaging.

If you use this, let me know how you get on.

Designing a diet

Tutor Time Videos is a great little website full of videos to show to your class. In tutor time. One video in particular, however, made me think of an interesting idea for a lesson. It’s a video showing what amount of different foods is equal to 200 calories. You can watch it below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMGUmcveQeg

A good way into the lesson might be to show different meals, and ask students to take a guess how many calories are in each. Most cooking websites list calories next to recipes if you want to find some examples.

You could then show them the video. The video also links to a website here which gives a nice list and visual representation of 200 calories of different foods. You could print this out and give the list to students. You might then want to ask them to refine their initial guess based on new information.

At this point, I’d reveal the answers.

You could then give students 3 scenarios. For example:

Ben

Ben is happy with his weight. In order to maintain it at his current level, he needs to eat 2500 calories a day.

Kate

Kate is underweight. To make sure she is more healthy, Kate needs to make sure she’s eating 2200 calories a day.

Simon

Simon wants to lose weight. To do this he needs to eat 1700 calories a day.

Then you could ask students to design a diet for each of them, trying to stick as close to the intended calorie target as possible.

To make the task more rich, you could even ask students to look at home and find their own data for the calorie content of foods in their cupboard.

The mathematical skills used here would not be hugely advanced, but this kind of task is all about the application of that maths and trying to stay away from a simple ‘234 + 456’ contextless question.

If you try this, please report back with how it went. I’m going to give it a go with my nurture group and put a follow up post on here soon.

Hat-tips to David Gale for inspiration. Follow him on twitter @reflectivemaths and to Adam from my maths department who suggested the initial guessing idea which I think adds a lot to the task.

TickTock Starters

So I made some starters. You can find them here. The file name says ’25 starters’ but there’s actually more than fifty of them. I got carried away.

There are some of the normal numeracy starters in this pack, but I’ve also tried to add unique and interesting ideas that can be used over and over agin. In this post I’ll talk you through some of the better ones.

(A quick note: the numbers are simply ordered by which I added to the slide show first. There’s no special numbering system)

14. If this is the answer, what is the question?

What is the question?

This is the best starter I’ve ever come up with. It’s simply a random number generator that gives you a number between 1 and 50. The range of questions that students come up with, and the creativity of those questions, will astound you. I really love doing this, as it allows students to be creative (there are infinite answers! How often do we have that in maths?) and challenge themselves. It’s also accessible to all.

29. Bananas

Bananas

I found that a lot of my students like playing a game called Bananas. You get given a letter then have to fill as many categories as you can with words starting with that letter. I created a digital maths version, complete with random letter generator that means you can play the game in maths lessons. It hits literacy boxes and students absolutely love it as it’s gamey and allows them to be creative. You wouldn’t believe how much you can get out of this one slide, and as it’s got random generation aspects you can use it more than once. Give it a go.

21. How many sweets in the jar

Sweets in a jar

This may seem a silly one, but it’s engaging (one thing I’ve tried to keep with the green coloured starters is the idea that all students, regardless of ability, can have a go) and estimation is one of the key tools students will need in their lives. There’s a link to a great video about the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, too.

Download the full PowerPoint for all fifty. I think some of them will be of great use on your first day back.

James Garfield Was the Only U.S. President to Prove a Math[s] Theorem

This is really cool!

The Pythagorean Theorem has been proved many times, and probably will be proven many more times. But only one proof was made by a United States President. Five years before James A Garfield was elected president, he came up with a proof that involves a simple sheet of paper and some scissors.

http://io9.com/james-garfield-was-the-only-u-s-president-to-prove-a-m-1037750658

Why teachers don't know best

This is a really interesting post and well worth a read.

I’m not sure I agree with all of it. I especially hate it when anyone refers to pupils as ‘customers’, but it really got me thinking, and that’s always a good thing.

Chris Moyles' Quiz Night

A while ago, Chris Moyles had a TV show called ‘Quiz Night’. Part of the program was a maths quiz, done by various pop acts (including, shudder, One Direction).

A lot of these are available on YouTube, so I collected them all together to make a convenient playlist.

Here it is

I’ve used these a lot. They’re fun and engaging.

100 Boring Questions

I am a fairly traditional teacher. I believe that people learn by doing, and people learn mathematical processes by doing them.

However, doing a hundred questions is dull, so I’m always looking for ways to make a simple worksheet more interesting and involving. Here are a few ideas I’ve collected over the years and my thoughts on them:

Collect a joke

I’ve used and created a few of these before [click here for an example]. I like them. Student’s are often quite engaged finding the joke, however groan worthy it is and they’re kind of (whisper it) fun. Following the trail lends a puzzle element.  However, there is a problem with them. Often, when students complete the joke, they can’t help but shout it out. This then removes the motivation for other students to complete the work. I’ve not managed a way around this yet.

Tarsia/Card Sorts

Tarsia [see here] is everywhere. Most people are comfortable using them, and theres a lot of material available on the internet. You can also test misconceptions by tweeking the questions and answers and if you do these one between two it can get students talking to each other (which is always good). However, I find that the larger Tarsia puzzles can often go on a little too long (even with interruptions to keep students on-task) and they are not actually that different from a normal list of questions.

The other problem is that once a Tarsia puzzle is finished there’s the issue of what you do with it. There’s no greater way to irritate students than to ask them to put all the cards away and back from where they came, but asking students to stick it down and keep a record can be a waste of time.

Thoughts and Crosses

Thoughts and Crosses is, as you would expect, a take on naughts and crosses [see example here]. I’m keen on gamification in my classroom, so the idea of a worksheet as a game really appeals to me.

There’s also a nice twist in that students have to push themselves to win, and there’s quite a good self checking mechanism in place, where students are invested in checking their answers.

However, the problem here is that if both students have misconceptions, the mistakes can often go unchecked but it’s obviously fairly easy to go through the answers.

Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Want to know what this is? Click here. I like this idea of students coaching each other, however it’s difficult to let go. It may be good practice for some with a good grasp of the concepts, but I often use questions as a tool for learning. I expect students to get things wrong, to be corrected and learn from their mistakes. Maybe quiz, quiz trade allows this and I need to let students be more in charge of their own destinies, but I’m not quite convinced yet.

What things do you use to disguise a worksheet? Should we be disguising worksheets or should we doing tasks that are inherently different and more engaging? Leave a comment a join the debate.