This is one of a set of resources from the IET that uses the theme of the lunar new year to reinforce basic maths skills through the use of Chinese calligraphy. The activity is aimed at key stage 3 pupils with low levels of attainment.

Pupils learn about and make use of Chinese calligraphy. They will learn...

The objectives of this activity are to develop a chain of reasoning and to understand the application of mathematical induction to proving divisibility. Students are given a set of cards. The cards have to be arranged in such a manner that they form the solution to a problem together with justification for their...

These two lessons use the context of the scoring system of Ultimate frisbee to help students see a real-life use of how spreadsheets and data handling can assist a sporting context.  

Lesson 1 shows...

This resource features four short tasks that involve creating, re-arranging and solving equations.

One of the tasks looks at selling tickets for a concert. Students must form two equations connecting two variables and then solve the resulting simultaneous equations. They then go on to interpret their answers...

This engineering challenge asks students to create a minute-long digital animated film that tells a creative, fictional story about a concept related to engineering. The resource provides questions to support students through the process of planning their video and asks them to create a storyboard before filming to...

This resource challenges students to design a spectacular human-powered invention for creating the spark which lights the bio-fuel generator of a newly built state-of-the-art, eco-friendly house. The students need to produce a design for their invention and enough evidence to convince the judges that the device...

Creative Use of Odd Moments contains seven activities which are ideal for use as starter activities, extension questions or to develop mathematical thinking and problem solving. Each activity is accompanied by teacher notes, supplying the answers and explanations of the mathematics involved....

This activity from the Nuffield Foundation shows students how to use a recurrence relation to work out how long it takes to pay off a credit card loan and how much it costs. They can use a graphic calculator or spreadsheet to do the working. After working through the given example, where a customer spends £1250 and...

This resource explains the check digit algorithm invented by Hans Luhn. This algorithm is widely used for both credit and debit cards to check small errors in the input of card numbers, using the final digit on the card as a check. 

The instructions clearly show how to apply the algorithm, and invites...

In this Crest Award accredited project, students monitor levels of atmospheric sulfur dioxide and rainfall acidity in the school grounds.  Suggested investigations include:

•  Investigate various methods of measuring acidities between pH4 and pH7, to decide which method is most accurate.
• Compare...

In this project students will research ways of detecting low concentrations of lead and apply these to test samples from the environment. The objective is to investigate whether lead from petrol still persists at the roadside in order to determine whether there is a lurking legacy of lead.

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This project encourages students to make contact with a business that performs quality control analyses, such as a public analyst who tests samples for the Trading Standards Department.  Students will need to carry out both quantitative and qualitative analysis on tablets with a single active ingredient, such as...

In this project, students make their own aspirin or paracetamol and then test the purity of the pain-reliever and compare it to shop-bought.  This covers titrations, chromatography and other analytical techniques.

The aim of this project is to investigate the properties of alcohol/water mixtures, and how these properties can be used to measure alcohol content. The alcohol in drinks is ethanol, C₂H₅OH. However, the ethanol used in the laboratory has been methylated by adding 5% of methanol, CH_3...

Perform multi-joint weight-bearing exercises such as body-weight squats for lower body strength, and push-ups to develop upper and lower body strength. Push-ups should be done with arms extended (but not locked), and level with the chest. Students who cannot do standard push-ups should begin with bent-knee push-ups...