Have a play around with this task, and please share any questions, extensions, simplifications, modifications, or lines of inquiry in the comment box below. The idea is to collect loads of suggestions that can then be used for effective differentiation. The full set of these tasks, along with additional notes, can be found here: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/richtasks.htm

An excellent lesson on sampling and estimation, following the SMP S1 book, kindly donated by Lisa McNulty.

“Build an Army” is a fun, strategy game that can be used to consolidate understanding of key mathematical concepts. After students have played the game and described their strategy, there are opportunities for differentiation via various lines of inquiry and probing questions for the students to investigate. Full instructions are provided in the “General Rules” PowerPoint. To find more Build an Army activities, just visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/buildanarmy.htm

“Build an Army” is a fun, strategy game that can be used to consolidate understanding of key mathematical concepts. After students have played the game and described their strategy, there are opportunities for differentiation via various lines of inquiry and probing questions for the students to investigate. Full instructions are provided in the “General Rules” PowerPoint. To find more Build an Army activities, just visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/buildanarmy.htm

A brilliant Tarsia activity by Gill Hillitt on factorising linear expressions. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments or feedback for Gill, please share them below.

A brilliant Tarsia activity by Gill Hillitt on factorising quadratics. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments or feedback for Gill, please share them below.

A quick example of different ways of displaying the same data.

This a rich, Arithmagon activity on solving simultaneous equations. I love Arithmagons as they allow consolidation of key topics when going Forwards, and then opportunities for extension, creativity and discovery when working Backwards. They are also really easy to modify to suit the particular needs of your class. For all the Arithmagon activities in this series, together with teaching notes and extra information, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/arithmagon.htm

The 48th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. In my opinion, there is no better way of illustrating the concept of Volumes of Revolution to students than using Autograph’s unique 3D engine. Watch their delight at the area under the curve spins neatly around the x-axis to form a lovely 3D shape bringing what can be a very abstract concept to life. This video will set us up nicely for next week when we look at how to use Autograph to derive the Volume of Revolution formula. Clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

bingo questions and cards where the answers rely on knowledge of parallel line angle facts

Lots of equations involving brackets to match up to their answers.

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 8. Bisect the sides of a quadrilateral to get a parallelogram. All quadrilaterals are different but all parallelograms are identical. The grid allows easy bisection This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

A tricky puzzle, to really get pupils thinking. Great as a group task. Students have to use geometrical reasoning to find unknown lengths and work out the area of various triangles and quadrilaterals.

Using ICT in Maths. The 45th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. This week we continue our look at the world of 2D graphing by examining how we can use the tangent tool and the gradient function to investigate quadratic curves. This offers a slick way of illustrating why two quadratic curves have the same gradient function. Clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 9. Bisect the sides of a quadrilateral to get a parallelogram. All quadrilaterals are different but all parallelograms are identical. A compass will be needed to bisect the sides. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Have a play around with this task, and please share any questions, extensions, simplifications, modifications, or lines of inquiry in the comment box below. The idea is to collect loads of suggestions that can then be used for effective differentiation. The full set of these tasks, along with additional notes, can be found here: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/richtasks.htm

This is a very simple PPt exercise introducing students how to find the gradient of straight lines with examples. Ideal for KS3 and KS4 students.

This is a “Tarsia: Convince Me” activity on substituting into a formula Unlike standard Tarsia activities, here you only need to print out the solution (included on the PowerPoint), and students must: 1. Find (at least) 5 incorrectly matched up elements, convince you that each one is incorrect explaining the mistake that has been made, and then decide what the answer should have been 2. Replace the ? with the correct answer 3. Come up with a question to replace ?? that could give the answer. A selection of these questions can then be given to other students to use as a rich, challenging, pupil-created homework. To access all my updated Tarsia jigsaw activities, including the Convince Me series, as well as teacher notes and more, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/jigsaw.htm

A Tarsia activity on Basic Fractions, Decimals & Percentages. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments, or spot any (non deliberate!) mistakes, please share them below. Many thanks to all the teachers who have helped me assemble these Tarsias over the years.

This is a “Tarsia: Convince Me” activity on adding fractions Unlike standard Tarsia activities, here you only need to print out the solution (included on the PowerPoint), and students must: 1. Find (at least) 5 incorrectly matched up elements, convince you that each one is incorrect explaining the mistake that has been made, and then decide what the answer should have been 2. Replace the ? with the correct answer 3. Come up with a question to replace ?? that could give the answer. A selection of these questions can then be given to other students to use as a rich, challenging, pupil-created homework. To access all my updated Tarsia jigsaw activities, including the Convince Me series, as well as teacher notes and more, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/jigsaw.htm