Alien Invasion is a set of four interactive lessons about a full-scale alien attack that coincides with a class visit to Manford City. To set the scene and support the lessons, live television news bulletins, radio broadcasts and telephone messages help to develop the story line. The invasion leads to a series of...

In this Nuffield investigation students explore limiting values of an iterative process, using arithmetic, algebra or spreadsheets. Students can move from identifying patterns to forming, verifying and proving conjectures.

This Nuffield exploration is a simulation of a booking system for a small guesthouse. Students have to manage the bookings and, as far as possible, arrange to give people the accommodation they request.

The key...

This activity from Cre8ate maths investigates the lines of horizontal and vertical weakness in walls. Initially students are shown four walls and have to identify the lines of weakness in them, before finding the smallest rectangular solution which has no lines of...

In this activity from Cre8ate maths students are encouraged to experiment with different kinds of symmetry to create a suitable logo.

There is an exercise in using symmetrical properties to reproduce previously designed logos and this activity is complemented by Creating a logo, which gives students a free...

The teacher’s guide from the Shell Centre which accompanies the series of modules to support school-based assessment is the main guide to the materials. It makes some suggestions as to how the materials might best be used. It was not intended that this guide should be...

Scheduling jobs in a fashion workshop is the context for this Nuffield exploration. There are six people in the workshop and a series of jobs to be completed in one day.

The key processes which developed include:...

This Cre8ate maths activity allows the opportunity to discuss the modelling function of mathematics. The tasks allow students to develop their own strategies and to consider the idea of an ‘efficient’ algorithm. In addition, 'First fit and full bins' activity involves work on ratio and pie charts.

GAIM Activities are open-ended tasks where achievements in using and applying mathematics can be assessed alongside content. In the practical problems students apply mathematics to real-life situations.

GAIM provides...

This rich task from Cre8ate introduces students to a Latin Square, where each row and each column has all the variables once and only once. Students may be aware of Sudoku puzzles which are based on this scenario. They are challenged to find 12 different designs which...

This Cre8ate maths flight testing activity requires students to work in groups and, having made their own helicopter seed model from a template, record the landing positions and distances from a central point when the model is dropped from a standard height of one metre...

This Nuffield activity is set in the context of a park. Students determine where spies should sit in the park that has a square grid of benches, interspersed by bushes, so that they cannot see each other. Students also investigate how many different arrangements of...

This activity requires students to consider the problem of maximising the market available to a pizza shop through the ability to keep a home-delivered pizza warm for longer. Students use a mathematical model to explore the issue that a pizza home delivery business faces in ensuring that the pizza arrives hot! They...

Medical professionals use lung function test to diagnose and monitor lung diseases. In these activities, students investigate how these tests are carried out and determine some of the factors which might affect the results. They will work with a partner to use a peak flow meter and a spirometer.