1.
Welcome- some amazing news!
2.
World Cup Mathematics
3.
Cubes, Primes and Multiples of 7
4.
Website of the month
5.
Marathon complete!
1.
Welcome to the May
2010 Newsletter!
Dear
Maths Friends- welcome to the newsletter that 99% of teachers don’t receive!
(But feel free to tell them while it is still free, thanks to Hewlett Packard!)
This
has been a very busy term, with my ongoing consultancy work for East Sussex LA,
and it looks as though this may continue into the Autumn, meaning that I will
have fewer dates available for coaching, masterclasses, INSET or Magic of Maths
shows, so if you are thinking of booking a day, please do get in early. October
is already looking very busy, and I may be away for the first half of January
2011 as well…
I
have some great news – I have actually finished the calculator activity
book! It has been a bit of an ongoing project, and if truth be told has had to
go onto so many backburners to make way for too many other things, but this
week I gritted my teeth and put the finishing touches to it. I even pruned it –
a difficult thing to do but I cut it down to the 20 best, so it is guaranteed to be full of useable ideas. It is
now with Matt, my fabulous graphic designer, who will make it look stunning as
well as practical.
After
the final proof-reading stage, it will be sent to the printers and with luck we
should have it ready before the end of the school year. Watch out in July for
an absolutely amazing offer from Hewlett Packard, that will be strictly for
subscribers only! And I have a VERY exciting bit of news to share about the
book next month – maybe the most exciting news yet!
2. World Cup Mathematics
You
would be disappointed if I didn’t include at least a couple of ideas from the
World Cup, wouldn’t you?! So here in this
‘Top Ten’ are a few of my old favourites, along with some ideas I have
gleaned from others, including on a thread on the NCETM website discussing this
very issue. So thanks to all whose ideas I have collated here in note format to
get your own creative juices flowing– enjoy! I have deliberately included ideas
for all key stages and ability levels so you won’t be able to use them all.
Either
watch a live or recorded game (or game segment) and think about the following:
a) Players (for younger children) – how many people are on the pitch if
you include the referee? How many EQUAL teams could you make from 22 players?
What if we had more/fewer players? (This
is a good opportunity to talk about odd and even numbers, factors, etc.) How
many legs? How many fingers? How many metatarsals? (Maybe not that one)
b)
Player
Numbers
– What numbers can you spot? Total? Different type of Averages? Primes? Squares?
c)
The pitch – what
shapes can you see? (And two nets – thanks to SDTF!) What fraction of the pitch
is inside the two penalty areas Or, for KS3 and KS4, the centre circle?
d)
Percentages
–
using a stopwatch, work out how much of the match the ball spends in each half,
or even off the pitch. This might work better for a fixed 10-minute section of
the game, which we could then scale up.
e)
Scorelines - If it
is 2:1 at full time, how many different scores could it have been at half
time? Or what about if the final score
is 3:3 at full time? Or x:y? (Email me if you need a clue with that last one,
it’s an excellent G+T or extension activity).
f)
Matches – how
many games will there be in a division of four teams? (This is of course the venerable old handshake problem in disguise, and it
might be fun to relate it to this or see whether anyone spots it).
g)
Tables - Create
a fictitious set of matches between four teams and see whether they can produce
a league table. KS4 children might use Excel to do this, so that if a result
changed, the league table would automatically update itself – tricky stuff!
(See the NCETM
thread
for further details – thanks Chompski!)
h)
Player Ratings – this
requires some collection of data over time, but after all England games get the
marks out of 10 for each player. Who has played the best after 3 games? How
should we decide? Total? Median? Makes you think…
i)
Graphs and
Charts –
where to start?! Number of goals, number of players used, number of touches,
shots on/off target, or any number of things you could generate.
j)
Cross-Curricular ideas – those in primary can
probably think of links with Geography, History, PE, and more, especially as it
is being held in a country with such a significant recent history.
3. Cubes, Primes and Multiples of 7
You
may or may not be aware that with the exception of 2 and 3, ALL prime numbers
are one away from a multiple of 6. I think this is a really interesting fact, and
yet I was never shown it at school, but discovered it years later. I’m sure it
has probably been in print in many places for years, so I am obviously not
claiming any credit, but it is well-worth inviting your classes to investigate.
You
may not however have been aware of another, rarely mentioned yet stunning fact
about numbers:
ALL cubes are one away from a multiple of 7!
(Apart
from cubes of multiples of 7 which are exact multiples of 7, obviously).
Now
there’s something to chew over.
There
is a proof available, but I suggest you resist the temptation to rush to your
favourite search engine at least straight away, just to see if you can convince
yourself.
4. Website of the
month:
I
can’t believe that someone took the time to put this together-
it is a superb resource. Thanks to Mark Greenaway, an AST in Suffolk for
drawing together a huge range of resources. Please note that I have not tested
every single link on the page, nor can I take responsibility for external
links, but I can say that I doubt there will be anyone who cannot take at least
one good idea from this website. Thanks Suffolk!
Here
it is:
http://www.suffolkmaths.co.uk/pages/1NumberResources.htm
5. Marathon
Completed!
You
will be relieved to know that I survived the Brighton Marathon and got round in
a little under my target time (4 h 19m 33s was the chip time). A huge thank you
to those generous subscribers who helped me raise £544 – if anyone still feels
they would like to help the marginalized people in our society, feel free to
visit www.justgiving.com/andrew-jeffrey.
That’s it
for this month - thanks yet again for being a subscriber, and remember, if you
enjoy the newsletter, please encourage others to sign up at
http://andrewjeffrey.co.uk/newsletter.asp
Don’t
forget – July’s news will contain details of a very special FREE offer, but by
the time it is published it will be too late for others to join and claim it!
And there is other more personal news on the way too!
AJx
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