Welcome to the second day of chrismaths!
Today we give you Doves…
(Image credit: Talismancoins.com)
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On the second day of christmas
167. ChrisMaths 2
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166. Merry ChrisMaths 1
I’m not going tinsel crazy yet – I’m just giving you, the reader, a resource a bit early to allow for printing and planning. We have a big noticeboard in the Maths Dept and I thought that this year it would be nice to have a temporary Christmas display: Welcome to the ‘Twelve Days of Chrismaths’!
I will be uploading twelve vaguely christmas related, corny christmas posters, starting today. I’m going to put one up each weekday in school, from 2nd December onwards. You might want to make this into a competition and get students to submit solutions to all the puzzles. You might want to use them as a class activity in the last week of term. Whatever you choose to do, come back each day for the next puzzle.
165. What’s that button do again?
Back in post 73: ‘Calculators: The New Hope’ I discussed using a simple worksheet to identify issues with calculators and to get students to write their own help guide. That worksheet is now available in pdf format: How to use a Calculator. There is also a new link on the original post.
Note: Even if your school doesn’t use that particular make/model of calculator it’s still a good discussion resource or starting point for your own worksheet.
155. Trigonometry & Differentiation
My Year 13 class have just finished C3 and actually asked a very sensible set of questions:
- Which formulae are given to you?
- Which formulae must you learn?
- Which formulae can you work out from given rules?
- How do you prove simple rules?
In response to this, I’ve written a booklet for the Edexcel C3 paper: Trigonometry and Differentiation: What you are given and what you need to learn (docx) ( PDF Version)
86. Snapdragon & Resources
I’ve just started sharing resources on the Times Educational Supplement (TES) website.
The first resource is a typed up version of the Trigonometry Snapdragon.
I’ve omitted the diagrams so you can have a discussion about what the different situations look like.
Update: I am hosting my own resources now so you can download the snapdragon here: Trigonometry snapdragon v2
73. Calculators: The New Hope
Shameless Stars Wars reference!
To explain: My Foundation GCSE class are finally realising that if they work, they might just get that elusive Grade D or even C. This is my ‘Hope’. They have been doing well with the D to C essential skills sheets by @MathedUp and are developing a positive attitude.
The ‘New’ thing is they have shown an interest in knowing how their* calculators work, for the calculator paper.
‘You mean that little button will work out powers for me?’!
* When I say their calculator I of course mean mine – they haven’t got as far as bringing in theirs from home!
Activity
I used Google images to find a clear picture of the calculators we use in school. I put it in the middle of a page and surrounded it with common calculator topics/problems:
We discussed how to use the calculator with each problem. The best students labelled the buttons, gave instructions on how to use them and even asked me for simple examples for each case. This is an example of a pupil’s sheet:
I was very impressed by their attention to detail. I gave them no instruction on what to write and they produced good revision resources. This would be a good activity for KS3 as well as D/C border students.
Update: 21st November 2013
My worksheet is available here: How to use a Calculator
13. Trigonometry Snapdragon
I wanted to boost my students’ level of understanding of trigonometry without switching off their enthusiasm. We’d investigated the tan ratio practically and introduced sin and cos.
Now the tricky bit – how to make picking and rearranging trig rules interesting!
Introducing the Trigonometry snapdragon:
Pinch together the two things in the question eg opposite and hypotenuse.
Look inside the snapdragon at the pinched portions. Follow the instructions eg Sin rule: know hyp, find opp or know opp, find hyp
Unfold the appropriate section for your problem.
You now have the correct rule, rearranged for your problem.
Student Feedback
‘That is amazing’ and ‘Can I make one in the exam?’.
Download a digital version here: Trigonometry snapdragon v2
Also visit the updated snapdragon page for a blank template: Snapdragon fun