A quick blog to let our readers know we have been updating some of our old free resources which you may (or not) have noticed were missing since we launched the new site. Check out our Free Resources page regular to keep up to date on all available freebies. Today Averages and Range quick starter worksheet has been updated and uploaded today.
Averages and Range quick starter, really is an average and quick starter on lists of data. We use this as a quick starter settler before moving onto finding the averages and range from frequency tables. Download this quick free resource using the link below or visit our store for both free and premium resources.
Looking for ways for pupils to remember the different methods? Maybe you use the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” or you might like this video below “Its not hard (Averages song)” but be warned it is a bit outdated and like me you might not like the line or portrayal of the ‘perfect wife’. A quick youtube search “average song math” brings a lot of results.
If you are moving on to continuous data check out these resources available in our store
A quick blog to share free set of pie chart resources, require no-prep printable downloads, that we produced when NumberLoving joined up with LittleStreams in collaboration.
The worksheets produced by Littlestreams help introduce how to calculate angles in order to construct Pie Charts. Once pupils are able to construct, you can move them into completing the NumberLoving Treasure Hunt. This requires pupils to interpret pie charts; finding amounts from pie chart sectors and includes questions like those included in Higher EdExcel and AQA GCSE 9-1 Maths papers.
The two resources can be downloaded for free using the links below;
Just a quick post to share a Maths Teacher hack for protractors!
Lots of pupils don’t own protractors and so very often I found setting homework that included angles particularly GCSE Maths exam papers that most often include bearings/pie chart to be completed at home difficult. So our hack is to print or photocopy protractors on to tracing paper or if you have it hidden in the depth of the stock cupboard, print onto OHP (Overhead projector transparencies)!
Download this page of A4 protractors ready to print.
You will need A4 tracing paper and patience with your photocopier, even better ask your reprographics department to do it. Warning when photocopying onto tracing paper the photocopier might not like it too much and chew up some of the pages, it’s best to feed one page at a time. Even better if you have any OHP (Overhead projector) transparencies, print onto these.
Once printed you can then give each pupil a tracing paper protractor to use at home without breaking the budget.
This post is in addition to creating instant bar charts and pictograms using Post-It notes check out the previous post. Post-it notes are great for collecting information and instantly organising that data into a bar chart or pictogram to find the mode, median and range (if applicable).
Pie charts demonstrate proportions of amounts or a population, to ensure pupils understand this it is vital that they observe some basic proportions represented in pie charts. For example half choose red, a quarter blue and a quarter green.
I always introduce pie charts in this way using pie chart wheels. Pie chart wheels are easy to make. The Instant Pie Chart Template can be downloaded with instructions.
Print the pie chart template on four different colours, cut out and then secure the wheels in place using a pin and piece of card at the back.
Pupils adjust the colours by spinning to represent the results in the Power Point. Then ask pupils to give their own results that could be represented, or not if only four colours are available.
I always ensure I have red, amber and green in my pie chart wheels as they then double up as an assessment for learning indicator. Pupils display red when they require help, amber when they feeling more confident and green when they are confident and need more of a challenge.
Tallies and Pictograms
Another of my favourite data handling activities is to use music when reminding young year 7 pupils of how to tally. Pick a top ten hit with a repetitive song, as the song plays pupils have to tally the number of times the word is said!
Try it with Cheryl Cole’s “you have to fight for this love” and you have yourself a real challenge. Discussions can then be held about the modal word.
Check out our post on using post-its for instant pictograms on the classroom windows!
Get in touch @numberloving and check out our free and premium resources in our Store.
Clearly gambling is not something which we should be promoting in Maths, but allowing students the opportunity to gamble opens up the chance to discuss the moral, social and financial implications in a real way. When teaching probability as an end of unit project (in pairs) I ask students to create a game, this is an idea which I adapted from this resource on the TES. I usually start the lesson by giving an example of a game for them to think about – powerpoint here. Then they have to design their own and make sure the odds are in their favour, they have to work out the probability of winning and losing, think about pricing and prizes and from this work out their expected profit if 10 or 100 people play. This can be easily differentiated through outcome and I have done it with low ability year 7 up to top set year 9 by just adapting the success criteria.
Once they have had a lesson to design their game, make any resources and do all the maths you need to get your hands on some plastic money. Each team gets £10 (their games should cost between 0-£2 to play) and the students set up their games like a fair, they have the opportunity to go around playing one another’s games. Once ten people have played their game they should ‘shut down’ their stall. After this, get students to count their money and see whether they made the expected profit they calculated the previous lesson. You can then have a great discussion about why they didn’t make their expected profit (experiments differ from theory) and whether they still have their original £10 and how this relates to gambling in real life – e.g. the house always wins!
This is a fun project but also a great opportunity to assess and explore lots of elements of probability.
Get in touch @numberloving and check out our free and premium resources in our NumberLoving Store.
When teaching speed, distance, time graphs your pupils’ understanding of the graph can be demonstrated by asking them to create a story with the finger puppets, and that story is to represent a given distance-time graph. Easily differentiated by giving pupils different graphs and different conditions e.g. one group must comment on the speed at some point in their story and another include the time spent in each location.
A pack of ten animal finger puppets, and ten people finger puppets are available from ikea (here and here) for £3.99 a pack. There are many hand puppets on line and depending on your budget and your favourite characters the sky is the limit.
Alternatively you may wish to give pupils a story and ask them to draw out the distance time graph. In this video below ask pupils to draw the distance time graph for Peppa’s outing on her bike (start 1 minute in). This video is particularly good for challenging the misconception that the steepness of the graph represents travelling up hill. Add challenge by asking pupils to graph both Peppa’s and George’s journey.
Off course there are many clips on you tube that you can choose to suit your audience.
This football distance time graph online activity uses football video clips and joins this activity with multiple choice questions. This is great for any age but in particular older students. Some of the clips are dated, alternatively start a real debate and use clips from recent matches. As the clips play you can ask the pupils to draw the distance time graph on mini white boards or present them with a choice of three graphs. It is handy to choose a clip in which the player turns around and travels back the way they came.
Also take a look at this standards unit, available through the Stem Centre website here A6 – Interpreting Distance – time graphs. I really like the idea of matching the graphs to the different descriptions. For a complete lesson plan and resources check out this resource from sbinning available on the TES. This has been adapted from another resource, giving questions about the graphs.
Hope you enjoy the ideas here! Thank you to all our readers, we welcome all feedback. Get in touch @numberloving and check out our free and premium resources in our NumberLoving Store.
