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1 January 2018

5 Maths Gems #81

Happy New Year! Welcome to my 81st gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Number Properties
In Gems 79 I shared this lovely puzzle from Chris Smith (@aap03102):

Since then I've seen two great resources based on a similar idea. The first is the interactive 'Consecutive Number Types' puzzles from Jonathan Hall (@StudyMaths):

And the second is this free worksheet 'Consecutive Chains' from MathsPad.
I think these would work really well at Key Stage 2, 3 or 4 for exploring number properties.

2. Online Textbooks 
After I blogged about a 1950s textbook last month, I gathered together a group of volunteers to type up old algebra exercises into Word and work out the answers. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed. The project is ongoing and I will blog about it soon. In the meantime, you can see our progress here. Also, thank you to @EmporiumMaths for sharing some 1950s algebra questions from past London O level papers here.

Huge thanks to @NetNym for sharing a beautiful Victorian maths textbook 'Elementary Algebra for Schools' that has been fully digitised. This really is lovely and well worth looking through (I'm a bit addicted to it!). The zoom function works well so the exercises can be used in class if desired - answers are included, and the whole book can be downloaded as a PDF.
I think that we have a lot to learn from the explanations and examples in this textbook. I've started writing a post about this which I hope to publish next week.

Meanwhile, a teacher in Australia (@adaprojectnet) has created a website adaproject.net which is an open online textbook for all to use, covering topics from Key Stage 1 to 5. It's worth having a look at this project which is growing all the time. 
3. Primary Resources
It's great to see John Corbett (@Corbettmaths) publishing lots of new primary 5-a-day content alongside his very popular GCSE 5-a-day collection. Each day there are five KS2 SATs style questions at four different difficult levels.

Also for primaries, Dr Frost (@DrFrostMaths) has now added Primary Maths Challenge questions to his website with the help of @Mathematical_A. You can browse by topic or by paper.
Primary Maths Challenge questions
4. A Level Resources
StudyWell (@_StudyWell) has published a couple of practice papers for the new A level - these are free for a limited time.

Tom Bennison (@DrBennison) shared a new Christmas Calculated Colouring for A level. If you didn't use this at Christmas, the set of questions may be helpful for Year 12 revision later in the year. Tom also published a longer Christmas Calculated Colouring in 2015.
5. Place Value
Thanks to Jonathan Hall (@StudyMaths) for sharing a new interactive place value chart. This is really helpful for demonstrating the effect of multiplying and dividing by ten. You can easily duplicate rows which saves you writing the same digits on the board multiple times.
Update

You can read the latest eNews from the Mathematical Association here.

I'm excited that I've now booked a place at BCME - the biggest maths teacher conference of 2018. BCME conferences only happen once every four years - if you're not sure what BCME is then read my post about it. The price goes up after 31st January so book quickly!

I also hope to see lots of you at #mathsconf14 in Kettering on Saturday 10th March, and for drinks the night before. I had a wonderful time at all the maths events I attended in 2017 - if you've not been to a maths conference before, why not have a go in 2018? All events are listed here.


I'll leave you with this lovely graph, shared by @simongerman600, showing what people really mean when they use vague terminology describing the likelihood of an event. There are other cool graphs here. I think this one would make an excellent discussion point when teaching probability.

Have a fantastic term maths teachers! And all the best for 2018.





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