Simplifying Surds

By | 20th September 2021

Click here to download the resource

I created this for my class. There’s quite a lot here.

A starter, some example problem pairs, some activities etc. The usual.

The main activity is a total rip off of an activity I saw on Jo Morgan’s resourceaholic, though (although there’s a strong argument to be made that the activity there is better). I love how Jo points out the simple things. I am loving forwards-backwards worksheets at the moment. They force pupils to make decisions and get rid of that automatic thinking they can slip into where they are doing, but not thinking.

I also stole the ‘what is a surd’ intro from a Mr Barton session. It’s always important, I think, to be strict with your definitions. I had a bit of a nightmare today because I tried to teach significant figures, without defining what a significant figure was. A bit of thinking needed there…

You probably need to add a bit more practice to this lesson, but that’s where those websites that can generate a trillion random questions come in. I don’t just use these PowerPoints to teach, they are just a useful basis and structure.