Year 7 New Starter Investigations and Activities
This list contains a number of mathematical investigations, practical problems and problem solving activities appropriate for use to assess new year seven students' mathematical capabilities and to provide a stimulating start to their mathematical experience at secondary school.
GAIM Activities: Investigations
40 open-ended investigations encouraging students to apply and extend their mathematical knowledge.
I particulary like investigation:
9 consecutive sums in which students have to add consecutive numbers to make as many different results as possible. It is interesting to see whether students ask whether zero and negative numbers can be used. What happens if the answer is yes? Extend the investigation to ask what happens if consecutive even numbers are used? What happens if consecutive odd numbers are used?
8 Polyominoes There are lots of investigations that can be done using tetrominoes. Find some here http://stem.org.uk/rx7vc , http://stem.org.uk/rx98h , http://stem.org.uk/rx9r2
12 number chains in which students explore the number chain produced when students produce the next number in the chain by taking halve the number if it is even or by adding 1 if it is odd. The investigation can be extended by asking students to think of their own rules.
I have described just three, there are many more to choose from.
GAIM Activities: Practical Problems
40 practical mathematics activities encouraging students to apply their mathematical knowledge to real-life situations.
I particularly like activity
22 School Holidays in which students plan when the school holiodays should be next year given the condition that they have to be at school for 190 days.
37 Reaction Times which is a good practical activity to get students moving around the classroom and meeting their class mates.
38 Painting a classroom: an activity to encourage students to work in groups.
These are just three, there are many activities to choose from.
SMILE Cards
The SMILE Cards contain thousands of activities, games and practical activities for students of all abilities. Spend a little time browsing.
Shape Activities for Students Aged 11-13
A selection of resources, published by BEAM, for teachers of mathematics. They include challenging problems and puzzles, open-ended investigations, cross-curricular activities and resources to practise and consolidate students' mathematical understanding.
Good ideas for Probability
A number of practical activities to investigate probability. I like:
21- dice (page 8 of the pdf) a practical activity in which students generate data by comparing the outcomes from rolling different dice.
Horse Race (page 4 of the pdf) in which two dice are rolled to produce a horde race. What happens if the activity id extended to using the difference between the dice instead of the sum?
Snap in which students record the instances of snap and no snap when cards from a variety of packs of cards are used.
Bowland Maths: Assessment Tasks
Bowland Maths includes over thirty tasks designed to help assess students’ achievements and progression against key processes. To help with this assessment, each task contains sample work, and a 'progression table' showing how students’ work on the task can provide evidence of their progress with the four key processes: representing, analysing, communicating and reflecting.
These materials are also ideal for formative assessment that concentrates on providing the types of rich feedback that have been proven to help students improve their reasoning