These short tasks are designed to assess how well students understand working with scientific notation combined with numbers written in ordinary form. There are also questions on working with surds.

This task is from the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the...

This puzzle provides a gentle introduction to simultaneous equations. Three pictures are given that show different combinations of three items from a menu, together with the total price for each meal. The challenge is to work out the cost of each item.

In this Core Maths activity students are invited to explore a range of casino based games to understand the probability, and likelihood of winning, when gambling.

The secret of winning: Teacher Guide
This teacher guidance introduces the reasoning behind the task, features of the...

This problem looks at fencing chickens using pens. The challenge is to work out how many lengths are needed to create six separate pens for the roosters.

This combination problem builds up from combinations of three socks to six socks. Can students find a pattern and use it to work out how many socks would be needed to ensure a different pair was available each day for a month?

A sheet is shown containing six calculations that have been partially obscured by juice spilled on the sheet. The challenge is to work out what the calculations were, and their solutions.

This problem provides a gentle introduction to simultaneous equations. Three bags of shopping are shown: two have prices and one does not. The challenge is to find out the price of the final bag of shopping.

After thinking of a number, a series of steps is given that result in an answer that is independent of the initial number. There is scope to use fractions and directed numbers in the problem....

These activities, from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) publication ‘Thinking for Ourselves’, provide a variety of contexts in which students are encouraged to think for themselves.

Activity 1: In the bag – More or less requires students to record how many more or...

This resource, produced by the Centre for Teaching Mathematics at the University of Plymouth, contains ten ‘puzzles to get the brain working!’

Each puzzle is designed to make students think laterally, consider the question carefully and not give the most obvious answer. The puzzles could be used as lesson...

This resource from Susan Wall contains a number of open–ended questions which explore understanding and allow a variety of approaches.

Each question is easily accessible but can be extended to make a more complex problem. Students are required to justify their answer and, where possible, generalise their...

These resources, produced by The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), have been designed to encourage distinctive ways of thinking and learning as part of the NCETM professional development package.

Analysing reasoning and...

In this section you can see learners engaged in activities that promote mathematical discussion and explore your role in managing discussion with your own learners.

Introduction
Discussion is an excellent way for learners to rehearse their understanding and to learn from each other. Teachers often say...