If you are studying GCSE you need to learn the names of all the parts of a circle. This should help!
Circle Vocabulary
Jan 032014
Jan 012014
I have just discovered the quiz site Sporcle. Here is a multiplication game to get us started! You have to be really quick at typing as well as arithmetic!
Dec 122013
My Higher GCSE students really enjoyed using this tool to discover Circle Theorems this week. Highly recommended!
Dec 032013
The news today is concentrating on UK students performance in maths, and how the students in countries like China, Korea and Japan seem to be doing much better.
Why not have a go at some of the test questions and see how you can do?
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/
This is what the Guardian has to say about it. The OECD believe their results show that boys are better at maths than girls. Do you think this is true? Over the many years I have taught maths I have not found a great difference between the sexes, but I do acknowledge that the boys generally find shape and space activities such as working with nets of three dimensional shapes easier.
Nov 172013
Nov 122013
This game helps you practice giving the right change. My first job was in Boots the Chemist- learn this skill and maybe you could get a job in a shop.
Oct 302013
Oct 212013
Oct 202013
This interactive worksheet will help you get to grips with simple and compound interest.
Oct 082013
Scan
A shocking maths exercise looking at the changing ratio of boy to girl births in Asia.
Oct 042013
Obesity is still increasing in South Yorkshire. Do the maths, then go and get some exercise!
Sep 292013
You need to find the lowest common multiple when finding common denominators to add fractions. Highest common factors are also used in fraction or ratio calculations when you cancel down. This interactive worksheet will show you how to work them out.
Sep 292013
Image from the Lisa Simpson Bookclub
Simon Singh has written a book about maths in the Simpsons. Read all about it here on the Guardian website.
Have a read of the article and find out about Fermat’s Last Theorem, Perfect Numbers, Narcissistic numbers, Mersenne Primes, Googols and Googolplexs and lots more! You may not need to know this stuff to pass your maths exam, but hopefully you’ll see that maths can be both fascinating and fun!
Sep 292013
Find as many different calculators as you can. Your phone,
your computer, the one in the back of the overflowing drawer in the hall. Then try this sum on all of them.
4+ 7 x 3
Do all the calculators give the same answer? What is the correct answer?
If you have a cheap four function calculator you will have got the answer 33, because it always calculates in the order you enter the sum. Unfortunately this is not mathematically correct!
If you used a scientific calculator you will have got the answer 25 which is correct. Scientific calculators understand the correct order to do calculations. Multiplication is more important than addition, so this comes first.
So how do we know what order to do calculations in? We use a rule called BIDMAS.
B rackets
I ndices
D ivision ÷
M ultiplication x
A ddition +
S ubtraction –
Always do brackets first. Then do any indices (like 2 squared or square root of 16). Some people refer to BODMAS where the O stands for “of”.) Division and multiplication come next (these have equal priority). Last is additions and subtractions (also equal priority)
Sep 222013
Sep 072013
Have a go at this worksheet to find all the Prime Numbers less than 100.
Now try this much bigger Sieve to find all the Prime Numbers less than 400! Start by clicking on 2 and all the multiples of 2 will be removed. Then click on 3 to remove the multiples of 3 and continue clicking on the prime numbers until you are only left with red prime numbers.
Also take a look at this video
Aug 132013
This activity is about a wind turbine in Norfolk. Watch the video first, then try to answer the questions. You will need a calculator.
You can either do the activity on-line, or download and print the worksheet.
Aug 042013
This exercise will give you practice in writing big numbers in words. Many thanks to Sheffield Renewables for the use of their Top Trump cards to make this exercise.
Before you start here is an example. The St Wilfreds Centre has solar panels that produce 3250 kwh of electricity. In words this is three thousand two hundred and fifty kwh. Kwh stands for kilo watt hours.
May 282013
Dr Eugenia Cheng from Sheffield University hit the news today as she published her findings about the maths behind the perfect cream tea. An internet search will find articles on BBC and ITV news and many national newspapers. Have a go at this activity to see if you can use the formulae for a perfect cream tea..
May 152013
In these days of austerity, benefits are being cut and prices continue to rise. It has never been more important to be careful with your money, as getting into debt can spiral out of control and have dire consequences. A first step in taking control of your finances is to understand what you spend your money on. This sheet will help you work this out. To do it accurately you will need to record your spending carefully for several weeks but you may be able to estimate figures until you have got more accurate information.
Fill the figures in for an average month. So for example if you pay an MOT fee of £54.85 each year this would be recorded as 54.85/12 = £4.57 a month. If you spend £10 at the pub once a week that would be recorded as 4 x £10 = £40.
There is also an on-line version which does the sums for you here.