Earliest recommended Year group: Year 12. Based on the nRich activitiy. An algebra task thinly disguised as a probability question. Answers are different but are consecutive triangular numbers. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 13. A parabola is stretched - calculate the stretch factor to achieve the area bounded between the two. All parabolas are different but the stretch factors are the same. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 12. An integration activity around the area bounded by two parabolas. Some pupils are confused if the area straddles the x-axis. This activity addresses this. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 12. An inductive formula is given with each pupil having different starting values. They have to find the 11th and 12th terms. The sequences loop (but they don't know that) so they don't need togo that far. Then, of course, they have to prove it always loops! This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 13. You have to run from tree A to tree B whilst touching a fence. Where should you touch the fence to minimise the distance you have to run? This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 10. Pupils are presented with a number of simultaneous equations to solve. How quickly will they spot that they only need to select one pair? How many will select the easiest pair rather than just the first two in the list?....... This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 12. Pupils need to work out the equation of a cubic and draw a tangent at a specific place. All tangents should go through the first root. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Have a play around with this task, and please share any questions, extensions, simplifications, modifications, or lines of inquiry in the comment box below. The idea is to collect loads of suggestions that can then be used for effective differentiation. The full set of these tasks, along with additional notes, can be found here: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/probing-maths-questions-index-page/

This a rich, Arithmagon activity on Subtraction. I love Arithmagons as they allow consolidation of key topics when going Forwards, and then opportunities for extension, creativity and discovery when working Backwards. They are also really easy to modify to suit the particular needs of your class. For all the Arithmagon activities in this series, together with teaching notes and extra information, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/arithmagon.htm

This a rich, Arithmagon activity on the equation of straight line graphs, linking in simultaneous equations. I love Arithmagons as they allow consolidation of key topics when going Forwards, and then opportunities for extension, creativity and discovery when working Backwards. They are also really easy to modify to suit the particular needs of your class. For all the Arithmagon activities in this series, together with teaching notes and extra information, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/arithmagon.htm

This a rich, Arithmagon activity on factorising quadratics, linking to expanding double brackets. I love Arithmagons as they allow consolidation of key topics when going Forwards, and then opportunities for extension, creativity and discovery when working Backwards. They are also really easy to modify to suit the particular needs of your class. For all the Arithmagon activities in this series, together with teaching notes and extra information, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/arithmagon.htm

Daniel Rodriguez-Clark kindly shared this Differentiation/Calculus rich activity using my Build an Army format. “Build an Army” is a fun, strategy game that can be used to consolidate understanding of key mathematical concepts. After students have played the game and described their strategy, there are opportunities for differentiation via various lines of inquiry and probing questions for the students to investigate. Full instructions are provided in the “General Rules” PowerPoint. To find more Build an Army activities, just visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/buildanarmy.htm

This is a practice just to see if Tarsia jigsaws can now successfully be uploaded to TES.If this works (I have my fingers crossed!), then stay tuned for hundreds of the best Tarsias coming to TES over the next few weeks and months. Oh, and in case you haven't spotted it, this Tarsia is on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing!

Have a play around with this task, and please share any questions, extensions, simplifications, modifications, or lines of inquiry in the comment box below. The idea is to collect loads of suggestions that can then be used for effective differentiation. The full set of these tasks, along with additional notes, can be found here: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/richtasks.htm

A Collective Memory PowerPoint activity on Laws of Indices. This one contains missing answers. Thanks to Joe Ellis for this one! For more information and ideas about how to use this resource, and links to my full index of Collective Memory resources, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/collectivememory.htm

A video tutorial from the Autograph team on conic sections. A step by step guide on how to create a plane and a cone in Autograph and investigate the intersections. Clicking on the web-link below takes you to all the videos in this series.

A video from the Autograph team. In this activity we will demonstrate a link between the graphs of trigonometric functions and the unit circle. Clicking on the web-link below takes you to all the videos in this series.

A tutorial video from the Autograph team on iteration at Post 16 level. Many equations cannot be solved using conventional methods. In such cases we need to use numerical methods to find solutions. Clicking on the web-link below takes you to all the videos in this series.

A Collective Memory activity on Transformations. For more information and ideas about how to use this resource, and links to my full index of Collective Memory resources, please visit http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/collectivememory.htm

A video from the Autograph team. The Central Limit Theorem tells us that regardless of the parent distribution, the distribution of the sample means will have a Normal distribution. Clicking on the web-link below takes you to all the videos in this series.