Explain this
Forty Problems for the Classroom
How the publisher describes it:
“Teachers of mathematics have a great opportunity... If they challenge the curiosity of students by setting them problems proportionate to their knowledge, and help them to solve their problems with stimulating questions, they may give them a taste for, and some means of, independent thinking.”
Review by Jenny Murray
In brief:
Derek Ball has done a great job in editing this teacher-friendly book. It would be useful for all maths departments in secondary and middle schools, and probably on the staffroom shelf in primary schools where there are teachers who are keen on the subject.
“An interesting, attractive compilation”
Forty Problems for the Classroom is an interesting, attractive compilation. There are problems that are well known, some with an interesting twist, and many that are less familiar.
The problems are arranged roughly in order of difficulty. None of the mathematical knowledge needed is outside the national curriculum for KS 2, 3 and 4 and it covers different aspects. However, when I looked through for something suitable for a mixed class of Year 3s and 4s there was not much to choose from. I expect for older learners there is more choice.
The problems may be photocopied, and although there are more than one to a page, none goes on to a second sheet. Each has its own picture, either illustration or diagram.
Problems often come to two different full stops - the uncomfortable and the comfortable. This book has the teacher’s answer to both these. The end part of the book is ‘Hints and suggestions for further work’. The hints give an idea of the way forward without giving any answers (in true ATM style) and the suggestions for further work mean that all learners will be well occupied however fast they have solved the initial problem.
When I first flipped through the book I saw a problem that caught my attention.
“A teacher asked three pupils to choose any 2-digit number, square it and then find the remainder after dividing the answer by 7.
Doris got 6; Maurice got 4: Horace got 3.
Two of the pupils must have made a mistake. Why?”
This is a good problem for class work. Something useful is practised (dividing by 7 without a calculator), a first result is easy to find, and then dividing by other numbers can be investigated, and an algebraic proof devised.
Derek Ball has done a great job in editing this teacher-friendly book. It would be useful for all maths departments in secondary and middle schools, and probably on the staffroom shelf in primary schools where there are teachers who are keen on the subject.
