Teachers TV: Maths in the workplace

A maths teacher relates his lessons to the world of work.
Maths teacher Daniel Gadd has a challenge. He’s looking at linking the maths topics students study in the classroom to how real people use the subject in the real world. Today they are focusing on how logistic managers use network diagrams to aid efficiency in deliveries and when laying cables. To start off he relates the topic to something the students can relate to - paper rounds. Developing this further, the students work on a cabling exercise, calculating the minimum amount of cable needed to link a series of towns. As well as looking at traditional classroom based activities, Daniel challenges his students to model one of the ideas they are working on. As well as working on directly related activities, the students are researching how different people use maths in their careers. To finish off the lesson they will be presenting the results of their research in a presentation to their peers.