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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.

Factors, Multiples and Primes

Factors – Beginning with the definition of what a factor is this video proceeds to find the factors of 12 with the aid of a factor bug. The factor bug is a visually stimulating method of finding factors and suitable for use with younger students. After finding the factors of 18, the factors of 17 are found. The fact that 17 only has two factors indicates that 17 is a prime number.

Multiples – The first demonstration finds the first six multiples of 5, showing that they are the first six members of the five times table. The exercise is repeated finding the first five multiples of 10. The question is then asked: “Is 18 a multiple of 3?” with the demonstration explaining why 18 is a multiple of 3 followed by an explanation of why 23 is not a multiple of 4.

Prime Numbers – This video also uses factor bugs to find the factors of a number. The video shows that 11 is a prime number as it only has two factors. The list of prime numbers starts with the number 2 explaining that 1 is not a prime number as it only has one factor. There is a brief section talking about the history of maths, the work of Euclid, how prime numbers have a role to play in internet security and the length of the largest known prime number. The videos are produced by MathsMaster.org

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