After a slightly disappointing year, the impact of the new key stage 3 framework and the continuing numeracy strategy in primary schools seems to have generated many interesting new products.
RM has a particularly strong set of offerings at the BETT show. MathsAlive! (TES Online, November 9, p21) is bound to create a good deal of interest. MathsAlive! Framework Edition is a subscription service providing interactive content and teaching tools to support the delivery of the key stage 3 framework. The service has been developed from a successful pilot scheme which trialled the materials with 20 schools. MathsAlive! uses technology such as interactive whiteboards and specialist software. It also provides an online management system to help teachers with the planning process. Training and support are provided, as are conferencing forums which give opportunities to share ideas with other teachers in the MathsAlive! community.
Also featured will be Maths Quest which provides complete maths sessions for pupils aged 11 to 16. There are more than 200 learning sessions of about 45 minutes duration, each addressing a particular mathematical topic or concept. The related website provides students’ notes and session worksheets which can be used to extend and consolidate the concepts covered in the session For primary schools, RM has announced Primary Maths Portfolio which bundles together Easiteach Maths, RM Maths Learning System and SnapShot Numeracy to enable schools to benefit from a site licence rather than individual licences.
Smile will be offering its full range of excellent packs, each with several programs on a theme. New this year are Ratio and Symmetry and Transformations. The latter is a suite of seven programs which introduce dynamic transformation geometry. It is easy to use and allows students to investigate the effect of transformations on 2D shapes. Levels 4 to 7 are covered, so this suite will be appropriate at key stages 2 to 4. Another product which promises to be very useful in teaching transformation geometry is Crocodile Mathematics, to be launched by Crocodile Clips at the show. This is described as a mathematics laboratory for secondary students, allowing them to create and experiment with mathematical models by linking shapes, equations, matrices, numbers, graphs, text and pictures. It is certainly a product I shall be seeking out.
Lifeskills - Travellers’ Cheque is a very good interactive program from Learning and Teaching Scotland. It is designed to help older students to learn about the processes involved in booking and saving for a holiday. Essential lifeskills include opening and running a bank account, earning money, using an ATM card, booking a holiday, acquiring foreign currency and shopping for holiday essentials. It is targeted at maths key stage 2 as well as citizenship and PSHE.
Leonardo’s Multimedia Toolbox, available from Tag Learning, is a multimedia authoring and Internet toolkit that helps to manage group work by allowing teachers to prepare presentations. It comes with several tools to help demonstrate mathematical concepts and is versatile enough to be used in all years.
Also available from Tag will be the second disc in the Jojo in Numberland series - Collecting and Sharing. This is an enjoyable adventure-type program in which pupils solve problems to defeat the dreaded Shiver. Narration provided by a quality list of actors, such as Lenny Henry and Rebecca Front, adds to the pleasure of using this program.
As usual there will be a selection of programs designed for revision, including those from Europress for SATs. StudyWorks! Mathematics Deluxe 2002 offers tutorials and practice sessions. The tutorials include simulations and video clips and cover a range of topics, including business maths and statistics. An added benefit is a free download of content from Pass your GCSE Maths.
Ian Wilson is headteacher of Rydens School, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
