Risps: Rich Starting Points for A Level Mathematics

This collection of starting activities for A level mathematics is intended to enrich the post-16 learning of mathematics students in lots of A Level classrooms. All risps tackle topics from either AS/A2 Core (Pure) Mathematics or the Further Mathematics syllabus, with the aim of making learning more exploratory and open-ended.

It is hoped these risps will enrich lessons without being tangential to the main business of the classroom. These activities are available in PDF form, collated by topics suitable for either AS, A2 or Further Mathematics students.

The ebook is in two parts: part one immediately gives all the risps together with their teachers' notes, indexed by topic. Part two tells the story of how these activities came about, and offers a philosophy as to how they might best be used.

Broadly speaking, a risp may be used in three ways:

• to introduce a topic
• to consolidate a topic
• to revise a topic, or a number of topics.

An introductory risp is specifically designed to give a pathway into new theory. The hope is that by starting to ask for themselves some of the questions that the theory is intended to answer, students will be prepared for the exposition that is to follow. A consolidation risp provides good practice in the use of skills whilst attempting to answer some wider question. This type of risp will assume some relevant theory to have been previously studied. A consolidation risp will generally be a good revision risp as well. A revision risp is akin to a consolidation risp, but is likely to be more synoptic, drawing together bits of theory from a range of topic areas. The teachers' notes always begin with a suggestion about the most appropriate use for each risp.