What is it?

This collection of Teachers TV videos looks at lesson starters in geometry for key stage 3 (S1-3). The videos can be used at the beginning of a lesson in order to pose geometrical problems, and to get students thinking about geometry in the context of the wider world.

Getting started

Durham Cathedral is the focus for a whole series of lesson starters on architecture and KS3 maths, each one posing a different challenge. How do you measure the floorplan of a cathedral using a simple compass? How do you measure one of the cathedral’s towering columns using rope, a metre rule and similar triangles? Discover hidden symmetry in the cathedral and how to find the circumference of one of the columns, or investigate the proportions in the cathedral and the ratios that are very similar to the golden ratio. Finally, there is a series of mathematical challenges and brain teasers linked to some magical numbers.

Taking it further

In Seaside, maths expert Isaac Anoom goes to the beach to pose a range of absorbing maths starter questions about the properties of triangles and gives some helpful clues and answers. The questions are designed to stimulate discussion and investigation, either for revision and reinforcement or as part of a themed lesson on triangles and their properties. Some of the areas covered include constructing a triangle and using the principles of “triangulation”. Finally, there is a question about creating five equal sections from a hexagonal cake, which the pupils are asked to work out.

Where to find it

www.tes.co.ukmaths-starters.