LO:  Think  about perimeter and area in context.   Overview: This project gets students to think about using constraints from written information to create a farm yard space. The farm also brings in the ideas of money calculation, areas and perimeters.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copy of the constraints sheet and a copy of the double-sided values sheet. Student will also need and piece of A4 centimetre squared paper and an A3 piece of paper.

I use this as on the interactive board while students do all tasks on mini-whiteboards as we go along.

LO:  To plan and price a bedroom.   Overview: Students use a catalogue to buy furniture and then make a scale drawing of a bedroom of their own design.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copy of the wall calculation sheet to work through as a class. Once this is complete give out the catalogues and the choices sheets. Once they have chosen their furniture given them the room plan sheet to complete a scale drawing.

Maths functional skills classroom projects for free use to use in lessons. Projects designed for one at the end of each half term for years 7, 8 and 9. We are now longer paying for the website to host these projects. They are now all saved on TES and start with “Functional Mathematics:” as the title. Old Website Intro: “What do you think when you hear the words “Functional Mathematics” or “Functional Maths”?   It sounds pretty simple, Maths that helps you function. The problem is finding the time and ideas to give the youngsters a fully developed curriculum in Functional Maths   At Lynn Grove High School in Gorleston, Norfolk, two Maths practitioners (Danny Hoskin and Darren Farman) have developed a scheme of functional units that both challenge and engage the pupils in FUN-ctional Skills.   The tasks are open ended and can be adapted to give each pupil a feeling of achievement no matter what their level of Mathematics is.   This curriculum has run successfully and been tested as a full program. Each Half Term in the final week, 2 or 3 lessons are set aside to give the year 7, 8 and 9 pupils an open ended task to perform. All the resources that we have developed are available free to download from this website. It is a labour of love, and we want the whole of the UK (and further judging by some of our requests) to share in our efforts.   The tasks are open, and require the pupils to come up with a strategy for solving the various problems using their functionality and the skills they have learned in Maths.   What we would like: We would like you to use these tasks across the lower school or even in the upper school (our Advanced Mathematics group loved the networking involved in the Easter Egg Hunt!), and provide us with some feedback.”

The A Level Scheme of Work I wrote for the college I work in for the new A-level starting in September 2017. We have three 1hr25min lessons each week. It is laid out such that students can be entered into AS exams at the end of year 1 or the full A-level at the end of year 2. This is for both Maths and Further Maths A Levels with OCR (MEI)

LO:  To plan a bus timetable   Overview: Students will look at information given for a bus route. They have to design a bus route system within a set of parameters.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copies of all the help sheets. Students can then fill in the Timetable sheet using the Map sheet. There are two slightly different sets of rules for Higher or Lower ability. Note: For the music to play the mp3 must be downloaded and placed in the same folder as the PowerPoint.

LO:  To work with distances.   Overview: Using distance tables and maps students travel around Norfolk to try to gather as many Easter eggs as they can.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Use the distance table handout with the first few slide of the PowerPoint. Then continue with the rest of the slideshow. Give students the Map sheet and the Egg Totals sheet and let them solve the problem. Once they have designed their meal students could summarise the information on an A3 piece of paper.

LO:  To choose the best mobile phone deal.   Overview: Three people are in need of new mobile phones. Students must consider each of their needs and choose a suitable phone package.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can be given both tariff option sheets and the user needs summary and try to find the best options. There is also a cost sheet to give students a little structure if required. Once they have designed their meal students could summarise the information on an A3 piece of paper. Updates: · We have created a new Phone Deals sheet that replaces the Monthly Tariffs and Pay as You Go Tariffs sheets. One of our teachers has tried this and printed this new sheet and the User Needs on the same piece of paper so the students only need one piece of paper. · Along with the new Phone Deals sheet we have an updated version of the Introduction.ppt. There is a choice of two purple slides at the end depending on if you prefer to break the task down into three smaller ones or just have the main task.

LO:  To use time, money and measures in a practical situation.   Overview: Students will decide what food they will serve for  a family at Christmas time. They must think about the likes and dislikes of the people, the cost of the meal and when they need to start cooking for a successful diner.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copies of the decisions sheet, price list and guest list and choose what they will have for diner. Once they have decided on the food, they could then be given cooking times and when to start sheets to decide on preparation. Once they have designed their meal students could summarise the information on an A3 piece of paper.

I use this as an introduction to sharing in ratio. For the 'sweets' sharing slides I get one person to come up to the front where I have a bowl of sweets. Get them to nominate a friend and get them to to work out how many sweets they keep and give to their friend.

LO:  To use weights and money in a real life context.   Overview: The project involves helping your Auntie Bessie make some cakes for a local car boot sale.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. For some of the upper ability groups they were then given the sheets to work through and solve the problem. Some of the lower ability groups were given a more structured approach and one sheet at a time, e.g. start by giving just the recipes to choose their cakes. Once all the task have been completed let them summarise the work on an A3 sheet.

LO:  To use logic and frequency analysis to read and write in code.   Overview: This project is a bit more teacher led (via the PowerPoint). The idea is to look and practice codes. The whole class can work together to try frequency analysis,.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. This project works well if students have mini-whiteboards and work along as prompted. The worksheets should be given out at the appropriate times. For the frequency analysis it worked well when different students in the class were given specific letters to count and then come together to collect results as a class. To decode the large piece of text most teachers got different students to concentrate on different lines and then read it as a whole class. Notes: For the link to work with the morse code sound file within the PowerPoint, the wav file needs to be saved in the same folder as the ppt file.

LO:  To perform accurate constructions. To solve logical problems.   Overview: There are two tasks to complete. The first is to construct a diagram of a sports field on A3 paper. The second is to solve a logic problem related to sports.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. When the slideshow instructs, get students to draw along with the instructions. Once the show is complete give students an A3 blank sheet of paper and the help sheet to start them on the first problem. Let them complete this before giving them the logic problem. There are some field diagrams below for projection if required as a visual aid for the class.

LO:  To use probability for future prediction.   Overview: Students choose a team of Elves subject to some constraints. They are then given the results to see who chose the best team.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copy of the Elf Statistics sheet to look at choosing their team. Once this is complete give out the profiles sheets. Once they have chosen their teams use the Results PowerPoint with the Results Sheets to see their final scores. Note that the introduction does have some music that should automatically play if the music file is copied into the same folder on your computer as the PowerPoint, if it does not play automatically the music file should work on its own.

LO:  To analyse averages and databases.   Overview: The students are given information in the form of a database spreadsheet about how well a group of people perform in several sporting events. They have to choose a team for sports day fulfilling various constraints.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Let students fill in the team sheet with their participants using the information. In a later lesson go through the results PowerPoint for students to score their team and see how well they did compared to other in the class.

LO:  To become more aware about carbon issues in a mathematical context.   Overview: Students are given information for a holiday that the Jones family are to go on. They need to think about trying to counter-effect the amount of carbon which they will use to have a holiday by looking at their general lives.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copy of the carbon footprint form sheet and the savings sheets. (There are some choices sheets that just give numbers for the problem to either make it easier for less able groups, or for teacher use). There are also checklist sheets if the students are to be more encouraged to work through the problem themselves.

LO:  To use statistics in a practical setting.   Overview: Students create their own questionnaires and research plans in order to develop an answer to the question “what is the average year nine student?”   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. The idea is for students to create questionnaires that they can send round the class and measure each other to find out their own statistics and information. In the past we have generally made sure students are at the end of creating questionnaires one day so we can run them through the photocopier for the class to fill in the next day.

LO:  Use calculation skills in the context of nutrition.   Overview: This is a big project that has been split into two so the teachers can choose which section they want to concentrate on. The whole project involves working out how much energy a student uses in week and how many calories, protein etc they require. They can also look at the food they eat and see the nutritional content and match this up to their needs.   Suggested approach: Use Introduction (part 1) PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can be given both Help Sheet 1 and the Calories sheet and to work out how many calories they need each day. Then show Introduction (part 2) PowerPoint and give students Help Sheet 2 and the Food Information and let them work out nutrition information each day. Once they have designed their meals students could summarise the information on an A3 piece of paper.

LO:  Look at, and analyse data in the context of comparing countries   Overview: Students are given information on a selection of countries and they are to summarise this in a suitable way.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered give each student a copy of the World Statistics Information for them to use and summarise using graphs and averages. We get them to draw their graphs using square paper and then stick them all onto an A3 sheet. There is also an extension task involving a net to make a simple model of the Earth.

LO:  Explore area and volume   Overview: Students are given information on creating a space station subject to some ground area, surface area and volume constraints.   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered give each student a copy of the various worksheets for them to design their space station. Some of the students did find this project a little challenging. Some of the teachers worked through the Dome Dilemma worksheet with the class first. We then asked them to create an A3 poster summarising their work, Updates: We found this project challenging with respect to communicating to other teachers how we saw it progressing, so we have changed the files and structure to the update below:

LO:  To make real life decisions.   Overview: Students will look at information on the Jones family. They must decide a holiday destination and then a schedule for them   Suggested approach: Use the introduction PowerPoint to engage the students with the task. Once all questions have been answered each student can then be given a copies of all the help sheets. Students can then fill in the Planner sheet. Once this is complete they could make a leaflet describing the holiday.