Bridging work for Core Maths – year 11 into 12
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a lot of people tell you that things are very weird at the moment. There’s no denying this at all and one of the aspects a number of teachers are trying to deal with is that of helping get students ready for the beginning of their courses in year 12. In this post I’ll outline what my school has done and then be more specific about the Core Maths tasks.
Whole school approach
I’m really pleased with the way my school has handled the transition work. We already had our applications in for 6th form so, students have been put into classes on SIMS based on their options. We have been able to include external candidates as guest students so they are not missing out. The classes appear on the relevant teachers’ timetable in a new “lesson 6” slot. (We have 5 lessons a day and are not moving to 6, this is just a temporary thing.)
Each subject is responsible for setting appropriate work to help them bridge the gap between year 11, especially finishing early, and the start of year 12.
Core maths
There are 5 weeks in this term so I’m setting five chunks of work with the help of the KS5 coordinator, Elliot. We are looking to strike a balance between introducing some new aspects and brushing up on some of the most important fundamentals.
We are using Google Classrooms so all of the tasks are set and handed in on there with all of the students being in one single class for the sake of this.
Introduction
I recorded a short audio for them to listen to. I can’t upload it here but if you want to hear it, get in touch and I’ll see if I can send it to you. (It’s only 1 minute long and basically says “Welcome. Tell me why you chose Core Maths.”)
Week 1 – Estimation
Task 1 – Mental arithmetic warm up. Complete the 30 seconds challenge (like these ones here) and type the answers into a google forms quiz.
Task 2 – Read the extracts of Rob Eastaway’s book Maths on the Back of an Envelope. Then leave a comment giving an example of when estimating might be useful.
Task 3 – “What is the total value of all the boxed Easter Eggs sold in England this year?” Answer this and submit a picture of their working. I told them not to just google the answer but it was ok to google something like “What’s the population of England?” I’m marking this and giving them (very positive) feedback.
Task 4 – Optional extra. Looking ahead to next week. Percentages revision.
Week 2 – Percentages practice
Look at these two examples of percentages being used in the news (here and here).
“Their report ‘Parenting Generation Game,’ says 81 percent of under-18s in the UK regularly play online games, but only 58 percent of parents have tried it for themselves.”
- Does that 81% value fit with what you’d expect?
- Give an example of why writing ‘online games’ is not very clear
Forty-nine percent of male parents agreed that gaming was a valid form of quality time with their child, while only 39 percent of female parents felt the same way.
- In your view, is 49% much different to 39% in this context?
From the jobs article:
The overall results show they are three times more likely to want to be a YouTuber (29%) than an Astronaut (11%)
- Is it acceptable to say that 29% is “three times more” than 11% ?
After this, I’ll put some percentage revision questions (these ones) into a google quiz for them to answer.
Week 3 – Critical analysis with QUIBANS
Two fairly short tasks based heavily on Mark Dawes‘ QUIBANS blog posts:
I’ll probably simplify these a little and give my students a bit more structure as I’m not there to talk them through.
Week 4 – Budgeting
Some questions taken from this article about ‘money maths’.
I’d like to put a simple budgeting task in here. It’ll be something like getting them to think about what monthly expenditures they’ll probably have to think about when they’re adults, then trying to figure out the general price of some of them. Finally, how much does that come to in a year.
Week 5 – The Power of Data
Search for a news website and tell me the name of the first type of graph you see. (Data representations are used all the time.)
Watch Hans Rosling’s amazing video 200 years in 4 minutes.
- What have you learnt about the world that you didn’t know before? (Not a Core Maths Question as such but still.)
- Describe one way in which having the graphs makes it better than a table of values.
Then, two options to do with histograms (I haven’t found these resources yet):
- A simple intro to histograms for those that haven’t done them before,
- A more advanced question for students that have seen them before.
These aren’t set in stone, especially the later ones so if you have any good ideas, I’d like to hear them.
I hope these plans are of use to you and if there are any you particularly like, let me know!
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