5 Maths Gems #179

Welcome to my 179^th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Maths Advance

I blogged about Maths Advance in Gems 173 - it's a website full of excellent challenge questions, perfect for high attaining classes. I've now had the pleasure of meeting the author of the website, George Bowman, at two recent conferences. Here are a couple of examples of his problems:

The problems are available for free, but subscribing to the website gives access to answers plus full video solutions.

2. A Level Topic Frequency and Advice

Thank you to @the_chalkface for sharing his analysis of topics appearing in Edexcel's A Level Maths and Further Maths exams. 

And thanks to @JohnRubinstein1 for sharing his 'advice for A level maths'.

3. GCSE Revision 

@draustinmaths has added to her excellent collection of revision grids. New additions include More Quadratic Equations and Inequalities, Circle Theorems, and Sine and Cosine Rules.

@MrMorleyMaths has added a number of new resources to his website mrmorleymaths.co.uk including Suggested Revision Booklets for Higher and Foundation Edexcel Paper 1, plus around 70 new How To Sheets with worked examples and exam questions.

Ken Stafford's website mathslinks.co.uk has been updated with worksheets containing Edexcel Past Paper questions for every topic, with handwritten worked solutions.

Also, check out these lovely hand-drawn posters of the GCSE syllabus from @mindmapmaths. These were shared four years ago but somehow I missed them at the time!

For more revision resources check out my GCSE 9 - 1 Revision Resources page. Or if you're looking for some handpicked recommendations and guidance on how to structure your revision lessons, see my recent blog post about GCSE revision.

4. Algebraic Fractions

@andrewmaths1 sent me some great questions from his travels in Canada. Here's one of my favourites:

I also like this one, for reasoning about graphs:

5. 1st Class Maths

I'm a big fan of the high quality resources produced by @1stclassmaths. They come in the style of both AQA and Edexcel. Recent additions include kinematic graphs, capture recapture, enlargements, algebraic proof, equation of a circle, tangent to a circle, circle theorem proofs and vectors. These are linked through my resource libraries. 

Update
Here are some things you might have missed:

• LUMEN launched their Key Stage 3 curriculum: learn about it here. 
  
• Your students might be interested in this Polypad competition. The deadline for entries is 17th May. 
• Designing your own maths resources? This geoboard from @StudyMaths makes very neat diagrams.

I've been busy since my last gems post. I had a great day at #mathsconf34:

And I enjoyed my visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon for #jointconf24, where I attended an excellent session on A Level by Rob Southern and Susan Whitehouse. Their book Teaching A Level Maths is out soon.

I recorded a podcast with Craig Barton which has had some lovely feedback.

🚨New episode🚨@mathsjem discusses 10 strategies that led to her and her team's incredible GCSE Maths results. Jo talks a lot of sense - apart from when it comes to mini-whiteboards. Enjoy!https://t.co/HJAFMHRFoo pic.twitter.com/14eQWhkovn

— Craig Barton (@mrbartonmaths) April 3, 2024

I also recorded a video explaining the Factor Method for finding a HCF and LCM (this has also had some surprisingly nice feedback, but I don't think I see a career as a YouTuber in my future...).

And I enjoyed a great night out at Puttshack (highly recommended for a work social) with my fantastic team.

I have a vacancy to join my team - it closes on 15th April. If you're looking for a change, and you want to work somewhere where it's a pleasure to teach maths to students with excellent attitudes, apply now. I can offer majority A level teaching, or a range of classes from Years 7 - 13, or just Years 7 - 11 if preferred.

This month marks the tenth anniversary of resourceaholic.com. I've written 478 blog posts in the last decade! Check out the archive here.

I'll leave you with an idea to get some spare Casio 83GTXs for classroom and exam lending. Since Casio discontinued this model but we still have three year groups using it, it would be helpful to ask departing Year 11 students to donate their calculator after their last GCSE exam (provided they won't need it next year). As an incentive, we might stand outside the physics exam as students come out and offer a swap - chocolate for calculator!