This activity from the Nuffield Foundation shows students how to use Kruskal’s and Prim’s algorithms to solve minimum connector problems. A cable TV company wants to lay cables to connect the towns, laying the cable along the roads shown on a map of the Isle of Wight. They want to connect all of these towns to...

In this activity, learners will compare journey times for different modes of transport and will calculate the time to travel specified distances. It allows learners to apply their maths skills in a practical application.

Materials include an introductory presentation, activity sheet and handout.

...

This practical activity from the Royal Institution provides students with an understanding of the different ways in which proportion can be expressed. Through a mixture of explanation and practical work, students explore how it is possible to give an accurate quantitative description of colours. Students mix...

This lesson develops the concept of finding areas of sectors. In particular students will:

• Find perimeters, areas, and arc lengths of sectors using formulas
• Find the relationships between arc lengths, and areas of sectors after scaling
• Using radians

The initial challenge...

This lesson develops the concept of calculating the volume of compound objects. In particular, students enhance their understanding of:

• Computing measurements using formulas.
• Decomposing compound shapes into simpler ones.
• Using right triangles and their properties to solve real-world...

Act 1

A picture is shown of a circle filled with toy cars. How many cars are shown in the picture?

Act 2

Further information is given about the dimension of the circle. Another picture shows a model car placed at the side of a penny. A final piece of information gives the price of a toy car. ...

In this Core Maths resource students are asked to apply their knowledge of upper and lower bounds when designing a car park for a department store. 

The teacher's notes suggest possible extensions, such as comparing with a real car park or finding possible profit if their design...

These two Future Morph resources aim to show students that there is a wide choice of options open to those who study sciences and mathematics. The resources consist of:

Career examples list

The list covers six...

This toolkit explores the census and its significance in understanding population dynamics. Students can use the Census maps tool, Build a custom area profile tool and access raw data from the census. They can:

• discover how statistical inferences are made about populations
• compare different...

In this Core Maths activity students are invited to play a game using non-transitive dice, and explore the probability behind them.

Champion of the world: Teacher guide
This teacher guidance gives an overview of the task including prior student knowledge, suggested approaches and...

From the Integrating Mathematical Problem Solving project by Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI), this activity for post-16 students demonstrates that the acidity of a solution depends on the number of hydrogen ions per litre; the number of hydrogen ions per litre varies so much that a logarithmic scale is...

In this activity from the Nuffield Foundation students use the Chinese postman algorithm, also called the Route Inspection Problem, to solve practical problems. The College Open Day problem provides an introduction to the concept, and asks students to investigate the minimum distance someone would have to travel to...

This resource develops the concept of exploring the relationship between the slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines. There is a particular focus on finding lines that are parallel and perpendicular by using their equations. The work extends into identifying and using intercepts.

Students are presented...

This lesson develops the concept of identifying when two quantities vary in direct proportion to each other. Students enhance their ability to:

• Distinguish between direct proportion and other functional relationships
• Solve proportionality problems using efficient methods

The...

This lesson develops the concept of distinguishing between rational and irrational numbers. In particular, students will enhance their ability in:

• Classifying numbers as rational or irrational.
• Moving between different representations of rational and irrational numbers.

 An...