This Core Maths task is suitable for small group work and provides a good opportunity to demonstrate and encourage mathematical modelling.  Students investigate the minimum amount of metal needed to contain a given amount of drink in a can. They are encouraged to explore ...

This series of Core Maths resources explore using linear programming to maximise profit in a number of different situations.

Maximising Profit: Linear Programming Examples
This package contains three different examples for students to explore, rocking horse manufacture, minibus travel...

In this activity students are presented with a calculation of the standard deviation of seven athletes. Students are asked to comment upon the result. It is intended that students will spot that the standard deviation is too large given the data, but can students spot the error? This resource highlights the errors...

From the Integrating Mathematical Problem Solving project by Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI), this activity shows that income is not equally distributed among all the inhabitants of a country. This can be shown visually using a graph and also measured. The mathematical ideas covered are:
•...

Students are presented with two calculation ‘tricks’ involving squaring two digit numbers. They then use algebra to explore the reasons why the method works.

The short presentation can be used to show examples to illustrate each of the methods.

The teachers...

Merlin is an Excel add-in developed to enable students to draw statistical diagrams and to perform a number of statistical tests. The add-in was written to support the statistical elements of the biology advanced level curriculum but will also have applications in mathematics and other subjects where statistics are...

This Core Maths resource contains two activities concerned with sampling.

The first activity asks students to review and summarise the key features, advantages and disadvantages of Random, Systematic, Stratified, Quota and Cluster sampling methods.

The...

In this Core Maths task students use statistical techniques to evaluate a number of Public Health initiatives, using the notion of a ‘microlife’- a measure of the impact on an individual’s expected lifespan of various lifestyle choices.

Microlives: Front sheet
This teacher guidance...

This guidance, from the National Strategies, is aimed at middle leaders in secondary schools: subject and year leaders, SENCOs and other coordinators of aspects of school improvement.

The resource provides guidance for middle leaders in evaluating the performance of their teams and the teams’ impact on...

This mini-course from the Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project: Making Sense of Data is an introduction to collecting, organising and interpreting data.

This mini-course consists of five units:

Where does the money go? is an introduction to looking at tables of data. It includes...

This mini-course from the Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project: Making Sense of Data is an introduction to the graphical presentation of data.

It consists of five units:

Changing patterns of risk considers what makes an effective chart, and emphasises the point that the choice of...

This mini-course from the Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project: Making Sense of Data is particularly appropriate for dealing with time-series data - data which show how one quantity changes over time.

It consists of five units:

Looking at population changes introduces some of the...

This mini-course from the Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project: Making Sense of Data is about looking at, analysing and comparing batches of data. In this mini-course students should learn how to:

• look at a...

This mini-course from the Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project: Making Sense of Data is about relationships between two, or more, quantities, looked at by plotting graphs of one against the other. As a result of this mini-course students should:

• look at the shape of the scatterplot before making any...

This mini-course from the Nuffield Exploratory Data Skills Project: Making Sense of Data is about how to deal with data in the form of counts. Such data, often transformed into percentages, are very common in newspapers as well as in technical reports and publicly available statistics. As a result of this mini-...