Something in Common

The ‘Something in Common’ collection from John Burke contains problems that enable students to hone their skills of both problem solving and proof. Each investigation comes with several different versions of a problem that have ‘something in common’. Having discovered what the problems are linked by ‘something in common’, the next challenge is to prove that the links will always work.

Each activity comes with a presentation to introduce the tasks. A thoughtful addition to the presentations is the inclusion of the original worksheets, enabling the teacher to edit the examples or prepare worksheets customised to the needs of individual students. A helpful feature is that many come with support files, which enable the teacher to demonstrate links between variables.

The resources can be used in a variety of ways. An example is to introduce a topic, consolidate learning, or to provide a motivation for looking to find a relationship in problem.