Category Archives: Download

271. Bored with exponentials

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I have a Pi-loving colleague who is a whizz with voting presentations.

love pi

Mr D created these review activities for use with A2/C3 students. The focus is logarithms, exponentials and Ln functions, including models for growth and decay. I particularly like the equation measuring boredness in a Maths lesson. It’s obviously wrong – how could a Maths lesson possibly be boring?

Exponentials and logs review (pptx)

Exponentials and logs review (ppt)

Optional Variation

We paired up this presentation with Qwizdom voting handsets. If you don’t have them, you could try out Socrative and turn students’ mobile phones into voting handsets

270. A whiff of cheese and exponentials

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Here is an introduction to modelling exponential growth and decay … using cheese!

Exponential growth and decay (pptx)

Exponential growth and decay intro (ppt)

I used this as a starting point whilst teaching the Edexcel C3 course. You could even demonstrate with fresh and not so fresh cheese. I’m sure the staffroom or sixth form fridge will have some ‘interesting’ examples.

269. Snappy Proportion

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Proportion … it comes in so many forms and different students grasp different elements at different speeds. Differentiation hell!

What about a little resource that offers up 4x8x8 variations of question ranging from simple direct to proportion to inversely proportional to the square? It’s not a new app, it’s an old app – a fortune-teller snapdragon:

proportion_snapdragon

Print, cut and fold (see 92. Snapdragon Fun for instructions)

  • The first decision chooses level of difficulty – students pick a number and count through the opening/shutting process.
  • The second gives the information to calculate k (eg y=kx) – the number of open/shut moves is specified.
  • The third asks you to apply your equation to a hidden number.
  • Students increase the level of challenge as they do more questions.

Download the pdf here: Proportion Snapdragon

The editable version is available here: Editable Proportion Snapdragon

You may wish to enlarge the pdf on a photocopier to make it more manageable for bigger hands.

267. A little factorising TLC

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Here’s a quick resource for you:

Factorising quadratics (pdf)

This worksheet metaphorically holds students’ hands as they work through factorising quadratics where the co-efficient of x squared is greater than zero. My students liked this sheet as it gave them a starting point, it stopped them putting their hand up for every question and it would be useful for future revision.

263. Percentages Tick or Trash

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To quote a famous DIY company from the UK, this post ‘Does exactly what it says on the tin’!

ronsealImage credit: www.ronseal.co.uk

Here is a tick or trash worksheet on percentages, including a couple of tricky ones:

Percentages Tick or Trash inc solution

I usually tick these worksheets until I find a mistake. I then tell the student to have a rethink. Obviously the correct answer is the other option, but the working out will need to be corrected. I also do not tell them how many of the remaining questions are actually correct – they then recheck these before I mark it again.

The only difference with this worksheet is that students have space for working out – no more guessing! The extension task asks students to try and figure out where the wrong (misconception) answers come from – that can be quite tricky and tests their understanding.

262. Percentage Building Blocks

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A quick reverse percentages resource for you. I explain reverse percentages by using both calculations and diagrams. These resources can be used as a starter activity or as a selective discussion point. The presentations are editable and the pdf is identical to them. I hope they are useful in addressing the reverse percentages misconceptions!

Reverse Percentage Problem (pdf)

Reverse Percentage Problem (ppt)

Reverse Percentage Problem (pptx)

261. Revision Egg Hunt

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Easter … scrawny plastic chicks and over-priced chocolate eggs everywhere! This little ‘egg’ of an idea was totally inspired by some lovely Tweeters who mentioned ways to use empty plastic eggs.

image

Equipment
I bought these two-part plastic eggs from a local craft shop. They are available from lots of places on the high street and online. My pack has 30 eggs in six different colours. You may be able to see that I’ve numbered the top and bottom of each shell – just to avoid arguments.

Activity
Now, I used these eggs for revision with my GCSE class. Each colour represents a different topic. There are 30 questions and the answers are the numbers 1 to 30. I hid the eggs in our main hall due to the unpredictable nature of the British weather. You could hide them inside or outside the classroom and give a prize to the person/group who correctly completes the most questions. Points could be deducted for trying to sabotage other groups. If you don’t feel that adventurous or it’s impossible to go outside, you could copy the questions and do this as a desktop activity.

Topics
Sometimes we get tunnel-vision on the focus for passing exams. We keep the ‘fun’ stuff for younger pupils. This revision activity is a treat for my hard-working students in KS4. They aren’t the easiest of topics, but they are perfect for students working at GCSE grade C and above.

1-5 Expanding & factorising quadratics
6-10  Ratio & Proportion
11-15  Straight line graphs (y=mx+c)
16-20  Simultaneous Equations
21-25  Shape problems
26-30 Factors & Multiples

Resource
You can download the questions here: Easter revision 30Q
You can download the solution here: Easter revision 30Q Solutions

Feedback
I was surprised to get feedback from this activity from a form teacher, who said their students had arrived at registration bouncing and saying how much they had enjoyed the lesson!