5 Maths Gems #91

Welcome to my 91^st gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. World Cup Box Plots
Thanks to Southborough Maths (@Mathsteam1) for sharing these box plots created by @johnwmillr. They show the distributions of height by position for players in the World Cup. They make for great discussions with students, and provide a nice demonstration of how box plots can help us make comparisons.

I've been using a similar set of graphs for years, every time I teach box plots (see my post on teaching box plots for more on this). It always goes down well.

2. Variation Theory
Last week Craig Barton launched a new website packed full of sets of well written questions for intelligent practice. Do check out variationtheory.com if you haven't already seen it.

'Rearranging formulae' by Danielle Moosajee

'Mixed Bases' by Joe Berwick 

Like Craig's other resource websites (SSDDs, Venns and Diagnostic Questions), you can submit your own resources for inclusion on this website.

3. Fractions
Thanks to Berkeley Everett‏ (@BerkeleyEverett) for sharing this animation. This can be found, along with loads of other great animations, on the Math Visuals website. 

4. Compound Shapes
Thanks to Mark Ives (@MarkIvesTeach) for showing us how he used Numicon to support students in identifying the lengths of sides in compound shapes.

5. Coordinates Problems
Thanks to Dave Taylor (@taylorda01) for a sharing a set of challenging coordinates problems (see this tweet and this tweet) . Here are a couple of examples:

Update
Do maths teachers all say things in the same way? At the Tweet Up in Manchester last weekend, I recorded a group of teachers saying words that I've heard pronounced differently by different maths teachers. I've picked three of these words for the first video from my pronunciation project:

Thank you to everyone who took part! It may not be the most exciting video ever but I think it's really interesting that students hear different things from different teachers.

Here are a few other things you might have missed recently:

• ThinkMaths (@thinkmaths) are doing their annual giveaway of maths goodies - the 'Exciting Maths Toys for Excited Maths Teachers Mailout' - sign up now!
• I'll be taking part in the Big Internet Math-Off in July - and I'd really appreciate your support! 
• Check out this great post from Alex Cutbill (@intersectarian) about the definition of 'power' in maths. This is what I was talking about in my conference session last Saturday.
• Do check out the excellent set of surds questions from Gillian Matthewson (@gmathewson1) on her new blog.
• The Nuffield Foundation report "How do shortages of maths teachers affect the within-school allocation of maths teachers to pupils?" is worth a read.
• I recorded a podcast after the JustMaths conference with Craig Barton which is now online - you can listen to it here. It's only half an hour!

Ten years after we did our PGCE together, I finally met up with Colin Hegarty! He came to my school to launch Hegarty Maths at our first annual trust maths conference. This is really exciting - Hegarty Maths is awesome. I loved trialling it with my Year 11s this year. Thank you to both Colin and Simon Petri from the Surrey Plus Maths Hub for their excellent presentations.

It's all been a bit crazy lately. Next week I have an AQA Expert Panel Meeting, the BBO Maths Hub conference, a TTRS Rock Wrangle trip, and prom. Then I can relax!

I'll leave you with this lovely factor tree puzzle from Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove), inspired by @HaroldReiter.