FREE Olympic GCSE Maths lesson – archery and circles

Actually it’s a Paralympic Maths lesson: teach area and circumference of circles in the context of Paralympic Archery. 

Bull’s eye! A KS4 Maths lesson taken from Cisco’s Out of the blocks – Maths and Science series 2012. Click to download (5MB, so be patient…)

Like what you see?  More lessons like this are freely available on ActiveTeach – no login required.

Rugby World Cup Maths: FREE Activity to download

The Rugby World Cup is upon us.  There’s a lot more mathematics to rugby than you might think, and we’ve created a bespoke Beast Index to prove it.

Keep your class on their toes with these AO1 and AO3 problem-solving questions on averages & range, and using formulae:

Not just a pretty face. Click to download and see how the world's most massive rugby player can help with GCSE Maths.

End-of-term GCSE activity: Sherlock Holmes mathematical mystery

Looking for a fun and engaging way to fill an end-of-term lesson?  Download this free resource: 

"Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Devil's Eye" - a mathematical adventure in six thrilling epsiodes. Click to download pdf - it's a 9MB file so may take a short while.

Set in modern day London, Sherlock Holmes has been called in by Scotland Yard to investigate the theft of the world’s largest ruby, the Devil’s Eye. Stolen from Harrods, the police have nothing to go on except a few mathematical clues.

Your students’ challenge is to solve the clues to help Holmes and Watson work out where they must go next.

We first published this story last Autumn as a competition in six episodes.  Due to their continuing popularity on this blog, we’ve assembled all the episodes into this single booklet.  All the clues are designed as AO2 or AO3 problem-solving questions, they all carry a GCSE grade, and the booklet is free for you to download.  Best of all, if you’re subscriber you can also get a… 

FREE Print copy for Subscribers

Leave a comment on this post and we’ll send one out to you!

Any UK-based Secondary Maths teacher can subscribe to this blog: enter your school email address in the box top right of the screen and we’ll post a free copy.  Subscription is free, you will not be spammed and we will not share your details with any third parties.

The AV referendum – FREE Maths activity to download!

The Alternative Vote referendum will soon be upon us…  

Exciting for some, dull for others – and a rich source of Maths questions for GCSE classes. 

Download our very own alternative Alternative Vote referendum.  It’s a role play allowing your class to mock up their own referendum, learn about the two different voting systems, and explore the maths behind them.  It’s also a bit of fun and we guarantee it will bring a smile to your students’ faces.

It's about policy not personality... Click to download AV referendum Maths activity.

Here are the Teacher Notes to accompany it…

Click to download Teacher Notes.

The Maths includes percentages, representing data and bias.  The last two topics often perform badly in exams, so don’t lose this opportunity to set your students down the right path!

We’ve also prepared a worksheet and ballot papers for your class. 

Oh, and please tell us how the alternative AV referendum plays out in class?  Which candidate wins under AV?  Which under FPTP?

AQA GCSE Maths Unit 1 Practice Paper FREE!

Longman’s new  AQA GCSE Maths series includes a really useful Assessment Pack. Covering AQA’s Linear and Modular specifications, the content includes:

• Course entry tests
• Chapters tests for the Longman Foundation Sets, Middle Sets and Higher Sets Student Books
• Linear and Modular Practice Papers
• Resit Papers for Linear and Modular

Ahead of the Unit 1 Higher exam next term (on 13 June), here’s a free Practice Paper for your students:

Click to download the paper as a PDF

And here is the Mark Scheme .  Let us know what you think – comment is also free!

Countdown to 2012: your FREE Olympic maths poster!

500 days to go to the big event (actually, 489 days as we write)…

Here’s your free classroom poster, with a map of all the London venues and some Maths activities built in.  These are at GCSE Grade D/C, and Functional Maths Level 2 – covering ratio,  map scales, and distance-speed-time:

Practise some Olympic maths, and help Boris find his bearings... Click to download.

Are your students adapting to the new GCSE maths question styles?

With two more AQA GCSE Maths 2010 Unit papers taken this week, are your students feeling more confident with AO2 and AO3 questions?

If you’re looking for a bit more practice on sequences and proof for Unit 2 Higher, here’s a FREE Topic Test from our AQA GCSE Maths Assessment Pack.

And here are the answers…

How did you find our practice papers?

Back in October we posted a free AQA GCSE Unit 1 Practice paper plus answers.  Last month we posted a Unit 2 paper.  They were written specially to support the new specification.

How did you find these papers?  How have your students been finding the exams, and how have they coped with the new AO3 problem-solving questions?

By the way…

Our Assessment Pack (RRP £149.99) contains two complete sets of Linear and Modular practice papers, as well as a bank of exam-style questions organised by topic.  We’re running a 30% discount for our subscribers for online purchases before 30th April.  If you’re interested, “Leave a comment” on this post and we’ll send you a voucher.

The best things in life are… THREE! 30% discount on all our new AQA GCSE Maths resources for blog subscribers only

3 Book model.

AO3, AO2, AO1 fully covered.

30% DISCOUNT ON WEB PURCHASES FOR BLOG SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.

Subscribers: Hurry to claim your 30% discount on all Longman’s AQA GCSE Maths 2010 resources (incl. Student Books, Practice Books, ActiveTeach) by going to our website before 30th April, 2011.  You’ll need a discount code, when checking out. We sent this to you on 28th Feb:  if you mislaid it, just “Leave a comment” against this post, and we’ll email it out to you.

New visitors: If you’re a UK Secondary Maths teacher, you’re very welcome to subscribe to this blog, and we’ll send you a discount code too.  Just enter your school email address in the box top right of this screen.

OFFER CLOSES 30th APRIL 2011.

Mixed Results from November GCSE Exams?

Anecdotally, we’re hearing that students had a mixed experience with the new AQA GCSE Maths Unit exams last November.

Some of the AO3 questions tripped up a significant number of students and it was tough for Higher and Foundation candidates to achieve full marks on some AO2 questions.

But practice makes closer-to-perfect, and Longman AQA GCSE Maths is full of support for polishing AO2 and AO3 skills. Take a look at this ‘AOk’ page from Unit 1 in our Middle Sets Student Book:

 

 

 

Middle Sets (E to B) Unit 1 AO practice. Click here to download a PDF of this page

 

The next opportunity for exam entry is 7 March for Unit 1 and 9 March for Unit 2.

Don’t forget that students can now only resit a Unit once!