A place to share some of the resources I have made for Computer Science and Maths. Primarily focused on assessment and curriculum resources for GCSE Computer Science where I feel there is a shortage of good quality material available.
A place to share some of the resources I have made for Computer Science and Maths. Primarily focused on assessment and curriculum resources for GCSE Computer Science where I feel there is a shortage of good quality material available.
This is by far the best resource I have ever made. It is a full program, allowing randomly generated questions spanning over 50 different skills / topics. The key reason this exists was to combat the 20 minutes a day I spent producing Skills Grids to use as starters for my classes. The power of deliberate practice and spaced retrieval is massive, so using this program every lesson with my class to practice key skills is fundamental in helping my students succeed. With an increased focus on problem solving style questions in the GCSE exam, it is more important than ever to make sure our students have the skills mastered so that they can apply them with confidence. Save yourself hours and hours of time by using this for your daily review questions, or use it to produce quick worksheets or question sets for in your lessons.
Features
Randomly generated questions spanning 47 different skills, allowing for infinite questions.
Difficulty toggle for the majority of topics, for example allowing more digits in multiplication questions, finding a short side instead of hypotenuse for Pythagoras and allowing squared terms in collecting like terms.
An additional problem solving function, where there are 5 procedurally generated applied questions which span multiple topics and are very similar to the more in-depth GCSE exam questions.
Integrated and easy to use timer, including pop-out function for separate use.
Easy to use class profiles, allowing you to add as many classes as you teach and toggle which topics should be provided as options for each. For example, load your year 11 set 1 with simultaneous equations, sine rule and quadratic formula, and have your year 7 set 4 focus on basic operations, negative numbers and fractions.
Random selection button, to have the program automatically select the required amount of topics from the current class profile.
“1 Topic” button, to fill all areas with a single topic for focused skills practice. This automatically chooses the first sets to be easy mode and the later ones as hard mode.
Great for review questions / do now quizzes at the start of lessons, question sets during main lesson, revision worksheets and much more.
This program is being sold here as very much in early stages of development. I have used it daily for the last 3 years, but you may encounter some small issues such as some questions displaying incorrectly on some resolutions. You will receive the full program for this purchase as it is now, which has all of the functionality described above. You would also be supporting myself as a developer and maths teacher. Only for Windows PCs.
Feel free to contact me for any questions or concerns at tobywatkins@gmail.com
Thanks
Toby Watkins
This is a bundle containing 4 applied A5 worksheets on various topics. Originally designed for high ability year 7, these could easily be used all the way up to KS4 GCSE.
Topics Include:
Collecting Like Terms / Simplifying Expressions
Lowest Common Multiple / Highest Common Factor
Powers and Roots / Basic Indices
Rounding and Estimation
This is a collection of applied questions for the topic of rounding and estimation. The questions are designed to emphasise student understanding by identifying misconceptions and explaining their answers. Also has questions applying in a worded context. The worksheet is A5 so can fit 2 to a page to save printing and fit better in student books.
Was designed for high ability year 7 group, but could be used for any year groups up from this up to GCSE.
Full answers provided.
This is a collection of applied questions for the topic of powers and roots. The questions are designed to emphasise student understanding by identifying misconceptions and explaining their answers. Also has questions applying in a geometric context. The worksheet is A5 so can fit 2 to a page to save printing and fit better in student books.
Was designed for high ability year 7 group, but could be used for any year groups up from this up to GCSE.
Full answers provided.
This is a collection of applied questions for the topic of lowest common multiple and highest common factors. Has questions applying to worded contexts. The worksheet is A5 so can fit 2 to a page to save printing and fit better in student books.
Was designed for high ability year 7 group, but could be used for any year groups up from this up to GCSE.
Full answers provided.
This is a collection of applied questions for the topic of collecting like terms. Has questions applying the main topic to geometric, worded and fractional context. The worksheet is A5 so can fit 2 to a page to save printing and fit better in student books.
Was designed for high ability year 7 group, but could be used for any year groups up from this up to GCSE.
Full answers provided.
This is a Maths / STEM project lesson designed around students starting a wholesale business in either the fashion or technology industry. Students will be expected to create a brand, calculate costs and work out profit for their potential business. Feedback from running this lesson in the past has been extremely positive from students, with most excited by the idea of starting their own business, and appreciating the massive role maths would have in this. They will have to make several key decisions including deciding on whether to import or produce and how many products to order based on demand.
Throughout the lesson, students will have to calculate the optimal business model by calculating potential profits based on a given formula. They will also need to carry out several financial calculations, before presenting back to the class.
This was designed for year 10 students, but could be used in other years. The main idea was to promote maths in context, as well as to increase understanding of maths involved in business.
This is a Maths/STEM project lesson based around calculating and comparing the density of different metals. Students have to first calculate and rank the densities of the metals, than answer questions based on combining different ratios of metals. These questions involve working out density, volume or mass from compound metal alloys of differing ratios.
The lesson was pitched at year 10, and has a support sheet to enable access for foundation students. The lesson was designed to last 75 minutes, but actually the difficult quesitons in the sheet means it could easily last 90 minutes or more if required.
This is a project lesson for 50 - 75 minutes based around interpreting data, understanding proportions, calculating percentages and statistical enquiry. The theme of this lesson is to emphasise the importance of data analysis in varied fields of life, and includes three specifically designed data sets based around sports, performance and financial analysis.
Students will have to answer a series of questions related to the 3 data sets to help prepare them to write a mini report detailing their findings.
These questions and level of data analysis are similar to what many companies use as the basis of their graduate recruitment maths tests, with candidates expected to interpret data in different forms and draw correct conclusions based on sound explanations.
Having ran this session multiple times, students are very engaged with the content and like seeing how maths will be used in real work places. It could be done in classes, or as a larger scale event. I usually run it as a carousel, with different data sets on each table and getting students to rotate around, but again delivery is flexible.
The 3 data sets are:
Sports Analysis - Wiltshire Wanderers. Students have to evaluate player performance over a season by working out things such as number of goals scored per game.
Financial Analysis - Netdrive Sales. Students have to evaluate sales performance of 4 products, calculating things such as most profitable periods, profit per item and percentage profit.
Performance Analysis - Silent Night Hotels. Students look at the performance of various hotels in a fictional chain and pick out positives and negatives of each one.
This is an activity lesson I made to promote STEM / Computing / Maths.
The activity involves 3 activities linking maths and computing. The first looks at potential roles involving STEM and is designed to raise awareness and aspirations for students. This is a card matchup that I printed out and cut up for students to try to match. The second looks at Boolean logic and logic circuits. The final activity involves the use of Formulae and Pythagoras in calculating damage in a video game. There is a worksheet for this activity too.
It is designed to last around an hour.
It was originally pitched for year 9 students, but would be suitable for 8 and 10.
Comes with a powerpoint with key instructions and questions, along with 2 activity sheets.
This is an activity lesson I made to promote STEM / Computing / Maths.
The activity involves the students working in groups to design, market and calculate costings for their own smartphones.
It is a highly engaging activity getting students thinking about the key aspects including engineering decisions, financial calculations and helps develop managerial skills.
Content includes choosing components for their phones, branding it, choosing materials, creating scale drawings, creating a promotional poster and presenting back to the class. It could easily be used as a whole year group event in a hall or similar venue, or on a smaller scale in lessons.
It was originally pitched for year 9 students, but would be suitable for 8 and 10, and high ability year 7s.
Comes with a powerpoint with key instructions, but focuses around the pack of worksheets which I print 2 to a page and give out 1 between 4.
This is a set of resources designed to be a rich mathematical task, used for project lessons. The project is set up to span around 4 hours, but could stretch to 5 or be condensed to a single lesson if excluding certain aspects. Suitable for years 7 - 10.
The pack contains worksheets, lesson powerpoints and a feedback sheet for students to complete whilst watching presentations.
Details of activities:
Activity 1: Choose a name and theme. Students choose a name for their theme park and design a logo for it. They also have to decide on a theme and target market. The maths involved in this lesson involved number skills required to be able to select the desired name.
Activity 2: Choose a location. Students decide on the optimal location for their park based on floor space, location and condition of the site. This lesson involves area of compound shapes (with challenge involving circles) along with financial calculations.
Activity 3: Choose rides. Students decide on the rides they want in their park which need to fit in with their theme and target market. In order to pick rides, students must calculate costs which include upfront costs and upkeep costs which varies between weekly, monthly and yearly for each ride. Students have to manage their budget to optimise their choice. Further to this, each ride is given a fun factor as a fraction which students have to work with in order to find out if their theme park hits the requirements.
Activity 4: Catch up and presentations
My students have loved completing this activity when I have ran it, and it is also nice to give them an opportunity to stand up and present their ideas and calculations to the class.
Any questions, please ask!
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
A selection of Christmas themed programming challenges aimed at students of varying ability. Tasks were designed with Python in mind, although other programming languages would work.