A sheet is shown containing six calculations that have been partially obscured by juice spilled on the sheet. The challenge is to work out what the calculations were, and their solutions.

This problem provides a gentle introduction to simultaneous equations. Three bags of shopping are shown: two have prices and one does not. The challenge is to find out the price of the final bag of shopping.

After thinking of a number, a series of steps is given that result in an answer that is independent of the initial number. There is scope to use fractions and directed numbers in the problem....

These activities, from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) publication ‘Thinking for Ourselves’, provide a variety of contexts in which students are encouraged to think for themselves.

Activity 1: In the bag – More or less requires students to record how many more or...

This resource, produced by the Centre for Teaching Mathematics at the University of Plymouth, contains ten ‘puzzles to get the brain working!’

Each puzzle is designed to make students think laterally, consider the question carefully and not give the most obvious answer. The puzzles could be used as lesson...

These resources, produced by The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), have been designed to encourage distinctive ways of thinking and learning as part of the NCETM professional development package.

Analysing reasoning and...

The This is Engineering: Entertainment STEM resource explores the essential role that engineers play in the entertainment industry.

This is Engineering: Entertainment asks young learners to express and share their thoughts and ideas, to be curious, experiment, find their own passions and interests, and to...

Some of the biggest challenges we face stem from how we interact with our environment, and engineering is essential to finding sustainable solutions. From renewable power to recycling, to making our homes more energy efficient, and tackling how we feed a growing population, engineering is a vital field.
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Some of the biggest challenges we face stem from how we interact with our environment, and engineering is at the heart of finding sustainable solutions. Working with water is particularly important when thinking about the environment because water sustains all life and is essential to the survival of the planet....

In this Nuffield probability activity students play a bingo-style game. To maximize their chances of winning, students must decide which numbers are most likely to occur when three dice are thrown and the scores are added.

A photograph of three cubes is presented. The faces of the cubes are decorated with patterns. The challenge is to determine which box is different from the other two. This resource is suitable for Key Stage 3 and could be used as an extension when teaching nets for cubes.

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In this Bowland assessment task, students are required to use their knowledge of geometry to describe a pattern. They are presented with a pattern consisting of three hexagons made up of triangles and have to what is the same and what is different about each shape. Students are encouraged to consider lengths,...

In this presentation and collection of student worksheets a diagram shows a square and three right angled triangles, with each shape sharing a common side. Some of the lengths are given in surd form, from which students have to find the area of the square.

The solution involves the use of Pythagoras’ theorem...

Act 1

A photograph is shown of an individual ticket, placed...

Tunnelworks is a series of teaching and learning resources linking mathematics and science to the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, a major new sewer that will help protect the River Thames from increasing pollution. Background to the project is given in the ...