Solving Scale Balance Equations Magenta Principles Practical Collaborative Exercise

Really good practical idea/resource to use when introducing solving linear equations. I used it after we had already done a little algebra and so this exercise was to link together the practical, the visual, the algebra and explaining in words.

Each pair has an A4 laminate of the Scales.gif and a envelope of 10 weights and about 10 gold blocks (Resources.jpeg). You'll need to print these out, laminate and cut out.

Then the TaskSheet.docx goes in to the pupil exercise books.

The students use the practical resources to come up with balancing scales and then reproduce them in their books. They then choose one to present as a poster on A4 (POSTER.docx) . I gave them all a black and white copy of the poster first and once corrected they could do again "best" on the colour copy.

After that we scanned the posters in and then choose examples to set them to the class as the starter for the next day.

This is what my written feedback said after being observed by my Head as a part of a learning walk:

"Areas of good practice:
-High quality resource which was visual and involved pupils in a practical activity
-Pupil choice
-Pupils making up their own questions
-Pupils working collaboratively
-Use of Magenta Principle CHANGE where pupils had to alter a set of variables and CONNECT where they used the information given and previous learning."

I found this resource in the cupboard but it had no instructions so I came up with this idea to use it.