Maths
in the real world
January 10,
2008
Victoria
Neumark looks at a new set of exciting maths materials that
will soon be winging their way to every school in the
country
Good news for
maths teachers who feel hemmed in by key stage 3 tests and
stifled by the Framework curriculum. Exciting new materials
go into production this term (spring 2008). By September,
every secondary school in the land will receive their free
pack of 23 maths case studies, courtesy of charity the
Bowland Trust. Students can investigate how quickly a pizza
cools or the geometry of dance in ground-breaking projects,
developed by the likes of the University of Oxford, exam
board Edexcel or digital media company Cimex.
The packs are part of a government thrust to liven up maths
teaching. The National Centre for Excellence in Teaching
Mathematics (www.ncetm.org.uk) was set up
last year with millions of public funds to stimulate new
initiatives in the maths classroom. At the same time,
the QCA has reviewed the key stage 3 maths programme of
study. The aim is to counter the key stage 3 drop in
progress and attitude to mathematics sadly familiar in
many schools.
The Bowland Trust promises large and imaginative
angles on
problems that engage 11-14 year olds. Some will simulate
real-world problems, like using spreadsheets to model data
on speed cameras. Others will be fantasy-based: the
Velletri Scrolls is a 3-D game where pupils have to solve
mathematical clues to find the fictional riches of the
Emperor Augustus. Each case study will include resources
for the class-room and for teachers.
It looks heady stuff to teach, with open questions asked in
ways that draw pupils into discussions and presentations.
Answering from the book is out; reasoning through a number
of steps is in. The Bowland Trust, which retains copyright,
is very firm that these case studies are not maths
procedures in disguise. They have surprising contexts and
contents: why do people like music? or how to foil a bank
robbery.
This is maths as a way to look at real life. As the
website www.bowlandmaths.org.uk
declares:
“many problems in work and living involve reasoning and
making judgments in situations where there is no one
right answer; such logical reasoning and explanation are
rarely taught well at present.”
The Bowland Trust case studies fit directly with the new
QCA programme, emphasises reasoning processes,
problem-solving, analysing, interpreting and representing
as against specific maths topics and their rules, routines
and procedures. The idea is to get pupils to think
mathematically and to enjoy thinking.
They also support the existing 'Using and Applying
Mathematics' strand. This strand is sometimes skipped in
schools where less qualified or experienced teachers are
assigned to teach KS3 maths.
The government needs this new approach to work. With
recruitment to maths teaching falling short this year by 18
per cent according to the Royal Society, it’s pretty clear
that maths teaching is as much a turn-off for new teachers
as it is for young teenagers.
So the Bowland initiative is teamed up with revamping of
the KS3 programme of study, National Strategy, and
Framework; new guidelines from the National Assessment
Agency; a new Functional maths tier at GCSE and the
specialist diplomas 14-19; and the ever-expanding NCETM.
Farming out the case studies to many providers has produced
a whole range of topics catering to both genders, ICT
demands and cross-curricular links. So projects on the
mathematics of the ancient Olympic Games tie to history, a
study of water availability to geography and development,
saving a baby kangaroo to biology, and geography and the
snappy product wars links to business studies and IT. There
really is something for everyone.
All schools will receive the whole pack and decide for
themselves which and how many case studies to use. Each
should take three to five lessons, plus homework. Teacher
training will be available from March, while the National
Strategies will build awareness towards the launch date of
September 2008.
Details from
www.bowlandmaths.org.uk
www.ncetm.org.uk
Sample
extracts:
Alien Invasion:
This case will
be an interactive experience based on the concept of a
full-scale alien invasion coinciding with a class on a
school trip. …. regular breaking news bulletins,
user-generated footage, maps and graphs, an army commander
requesting assistance, SOS messages from a teacher who is
being held captive on the alien mother ship, and radio
broadcasts. ..Maths arises naturally from a different and
interesting context, with each lesson ending on a
cliff-hanger. All resources will be available in an
application that can be downloaded from the web and played
on an interactive whiteboard.
How
can a pizza firm keep its pizza hot?
Pupils address two questions:
What are the best materials for packaging the delivery of
food?
What is the longest reasonable travel time (and so
largest catchment area) before the pizza becomes too cold?
Pupils move from a practical problem of a cooling pizza to
a mathematical representation of a cooling curve. This ..
is intended to induct pupils into the potential of
mathematical applications. … mathematics can underpin
scientific enquiry. The linking of the time to cool with
possible distances of travel and so catchment areas
introduces further mathematics.
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