An interactive Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game focused on numeracy questions. The questions near the end get very tricky! They are on the following topics - percentage, area, ratio, factorising, probability, volume, negative numbers, difference of squares, scale factors, angles, sequences, DST I normally do this with pupils writing their letters on mini-whiteboards before the right answer is displayed, and you can also do something with the lifelines if you like.

A presentation and questions for pupils to consider what makes maths problems hard? They will then be better equipped to solve (and create) their own problems. The main way that problems are made more difficult are: - Make the numbers harder - Repeated application - Difficult vocabulary - Extra operation at start or end - Reverse the problem - Hide information in a story - Extraneous information

What do you do when there's not enough information to solve a problem - or too much? This presentation and activities aims to teach pupils how to handle more difficult problems when it's not clear what to do. There are multiple examples from algebra, geometry and trigonometry.

Nine provocative questions to get pupils thinking about infinity. Each one has footnotes on the Powerpoint to guide towards the answer. What are Zeno’s paradoxes? Is 0.9999999999999999999… the same as 1? What is the smallest decimal number more than 3? What is infinity plus one? What is Hilbert’s Hotel? If something is true for the first million numbers, is it true for all the numbers? What is 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 … equal to? Are some infinities bigger than others? Are there more: numbers, fractions, or decimals?

An interactive activity teaching pupils a few simple memory techniques

An investigation for pupils about the classic Four Colour Theorem. Some background and examples, then a chance for them to have a go at. Makes a change from the usual end-of-term colouring!

A fascinating activity encouraging pupils to think about 'Fixed Points', things that stay the same when there is a change. For example, in the doubling function 0 is a fixed point as doubling keeps it the same. These fixed points have surprising applications, including the amazing result that if you scrunch up one piece of paper and put it on top of a flat identical piece, at least one point is in the same place! Pupils are guided along with a presentation with things for them to think about along the way. Some of the language is GCSE level but the ideas are applicable for all ages.

The key to exam technique in mathematics is to solve each problem multiple times, using independent methods. You also want an independent check. Mathematicians hate to get things wrong! This presentation and activities will help your students from making mistakes.

This is a thought provoking activity about how many variables are needed to describe a shape. For example, if you don’t care about size, rotation or position all squares are the same. To define size, one variable is needed. To define rotation, one variable is needed. To define position in the 2D plane, two variables are needed. So to fully define any square requires four variables. There are many possible different choices for these four. (Updated 2023)

A short Powerpoint on common confusions such as 6 and 0, s and 5, ( and c and so on. Pupils are made aware of the pitfalls, and given tips for how to avoid them.

A worksheet with five real-life problems that require using very big or very small numbers - How far does the Earth travel in one second - How many Earth's fit in the sun - How long does it take for the Sun's light to reach us - How long does it take to get a radio signal to Mars - How many atoms are in the Earth These require a bit of other basic mathematical knowledge (e.g. area of circle) but mostly pupils are lead through each problem in stages. Full solutions included at the end.

A Power Point showing the most common 3D objects (technically 'shapes' refers to 2D, and 'objects' to 3D). Useful for an introduction or for revision, and in getting the correct vocabulary

A series of pictures of the same school (Mearns Castle in Scotland) taken from further and further away. For each picture pupils have to work out which is the correct scale.

A chance for pupils to put their Pythagoras knowledge to the test! They measure a few distances indoors (e.g. their jotters) and check then check if the diagonal is the length they expected by Pythagoras. Then they go outside the classroom and measure some distances in feet (their own feet) or paces.

A Power Point that includes questions on finding 10% (and 20%, 30% etc) and another one for 15%, 25%, 35% et cetera, Useful for teaching the topic or just for practice.

Mixed percentage questions, on these topics - percentage change - repeated percentage increase or decrease - reverse percentage

Tired of your usual lesson starters? These six Power Points are on - how old are you in seconds - using coins - a famous question solved by Gauss - penguins - pandas - temperature in the UK and US

A series of seven Power Points with collections of questions that appear one at a time on the following topics: - adding (e.g. 20p add 50p) - which is bigger (pictures of coins) - count (counting coins) - divide (quarter of 80p) - how many coins (needed to make 13p) - multiply (2 x 29 pence) - subtract (£1 minus 45 pence)

A Power Point to (start to) answer the question of why we have 60 minutes in an hour. Wouldn't it be much easier if there were 100? Includes a few simple questions for pupils on finding fractions of 60.

A great way to introduce formulas, with a fun activity to estimate how fast your reaction time is. The Power Point introduces the idea of reaction time then shows pupils a simple experiment they can do, which leads to a formula for converting centimetres on a ruler to reaction time in seconds.