Mathematics Teaching 198 - Sep 2006

Woodworking and mathematics - Alan Parr

Alan's reflections on learning woodworking provoked a flurry of interesting responses on the ATM e-mail list.

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The geomatics.org.uk project - Tom Bramald and Jonathan Powell

Tom, from geomatics.org.uk and mathematics teacher Jonathan describe how pupils can benefit from some unusual and exciting free resources.

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Football - a motivator for mathematics? - Julie Cogill and Alan Parr

Julie and Alan visit Arsenal's Double Club Project.

Julie and Alan's visits focused on the work being done by Arsenal Football Club. How do you feel about incentive schemes such as these? Do they help pupils learn to enjoy or gain satisfaction from mathematics work? Or do they work against any sense that mathematics is worth doing for its own sake?

Please send your comments here.

If you aware of similar schemes Julie and Alan would enjoy hearing about them.

Algebra and art - Robin Ward and David Muller

Robin and David model how to engage middle school students in an integrated mathematical exploration of algebra and art.

Mobiles and levers worksheet to accompany this article

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To mix or not to mix? - Rosemary Shuttlewood

Rosemary partially mixes her ability sets to encourage well motivated pupils to inspire those with a more negative view of mathematics.

It saved my life - well, my lesson! - Samantha Price

Samantha describes a resource she made to teach Y2 children about fractions.

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Autograph in the KS3 classroom - Alan Catley

Alan shows some simple examples of ways in which Autograph can enhance learning in the KS3 curriculum.

Autograph files to accompany this article

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Mathematical challenge boxes - Kate MacDonald

Kate describes a way of motivating learners to solve and reflect upon mathematical problems.

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Clocks, angles and functions - Andy Kemp

Andy describes a week of 'timely' open-ended lessons with a high ability Y9 group of boys.

Process of making the clock

Letter mentioned in article in [RTF] editable format

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A sequence of cylinders - Erica Johnson

Erica describes how her students worked on a special reasoning problem stemming from an iteratively constructed sequence of cylinders.

Spreadsheet file to accompany this article

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Thinking aloud together - Frank Monaghan

Frank discusses his research into collaborative thinking in the primary mathematics classroom.

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Thinking outside the box - Tom Andrews

His sphere got bigger and bigger until he noticed that he was actually on the inside of the sphere and the wool he added to it only trapped him further inside the ball.

Happy lessons - Luke Robinson

I had to report back that there were happy numbers containing a 5 if you look hard enough.

Two degrees - Wendy Brady

My heart sank, since this wasn’t really using Sketchpad as I had hoped, but I came up with the following idea.

Geometer file to accompany this article

Letting exploration happen - Anne Watson

After working on some more examples, each time using graphs to support his searches for missing numbers, he was still trying to find another method to find the values by adding digits.

ACME

ACME will be making additional recommendations for continuing professional development for primary practitioners.

Why workings? - Nevil Hopley

They clearly did not see the value in setting out lines of working.

Reflections - Geoff Faux

ATM has been enormously successful as a teacher support organisation.

6 Correlation Street - Jonny Griffiths

Only men can shift packing cases, and then only if their names follow in strict alphabetical order, and then only if they wear cloth caps and whistle through gaps in their teeth.

Webwatch - Barbara Ball

More than enough activities to make this my number one free mathematics website.

From the Chair - Sue Johnston-Wilder

Mathematics teachers value external courses and conferences as well as their internal support networks where mathematics is valued.

News from ATM

My beloved Liverpool were playing and what a cracking game it was!

Hod-Lines

Our challenge is to get beyond the stage of enjoying the maths ourselves into the complex territory where we find ways of guiding our incredibly varied students to construct meaning for themselves.

Puzzle Page

This problem can provide an opportunity for students to find negative as well as positive solutions.

Jonny Griffiths responds to the puzzle page