“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 rich Venn Diagram activity on Fractions, including equivalence and ordering. To access all the Venn Diagram activities in this collection, as well as teaching notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/venn.htm Here is why I love Venn Diagram activities so much: 1) Students can always make a start. If they can think of a number/expression/object or whatever it might be, it has to go in one of the regions on the diagram, so they are up and running 2) The more regions student find, the more challenging the task gets, which adds a nice element of differentiation 3) They are incredibly versatile, and can be used for almost all maths topics for all ages and abilities 4) They are easy to tweak by simply changing one of the circle labels if you find they are too difficult/easy 5) Students can create their own as an extension task I hope you and your students enjoy them.

This is a rich Venn Diagram activity on the laws of indices, including fractional and negative powers To access all the Venn Diagram activities in this collection, as well as teaching notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/venn.htm Here is why I love Venn Diagram activities so much: 1) Students can always make a start. If they can think of a number/expression/object or whatever it might be, it has to go in one of the regions on the diagram, so they are up and running 2) The more regions student find, the more challenging the task gets, which adds a nice element of differentiation 3) They are incredibly versatile, and can be used for almost all maths topics for all ages and abilities 4) They are easy to tweak by simply changing one of the circle labels if you find they are too difficult/easy 5) Students can create their own as an extension task I hope you and your students enjoy them.

This is a rich Venn Diagram activity on perimeter, area and volume of rectangles. To access all the Venn Diagram activities in this collection, as well as teaching notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/venn.htm Here is why I love Venn Diagram activities so much: 1) Students can always make a start. If they can think of a number/expression/object or whatever it might be, it has to go in one of the regions on the diagram, so they are up and running 2) The more regions student find, the more challenging the task gets, which adds a nice element of differentiation 3) They are incredibly versatile, and can be used for almost all maths topics for all ages and abilities 4) They are easy to tweak by simply changing one of the circle labels if you find they are too difficult/easy 5) Students can create their own as an extension task I hope you and your students enjoy them.

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 12. Based on RISP 3 by Jonny Griffiths. Pupils have to simplify some algebra, that they have generated. All have the factor (x+1) 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

A nice set of follow-me cards for negative numbers.

The 27th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. Following on from the last couple of weeks where we have looked at straight line graphs, this time we take a look at Autograph's excellent Gradient Function. We see how useful it can be for studying straight lines, and as a way of introducing older students to the joys of differentiation and calculus. Below the video you will find an option to download it and play it on a larger screen, or by clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

The 29th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. Following on from our work on Scatter Diagrams, we take a look at how the Line of Best Fit is calculated. This provides a valuable link from Key Stage 4 maths to A Level Statistics as Autograph is able to clearly demonstrate the method for finding the least squares regression line. Below the video you will find an option to download it and play it on a larger screen, or by clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

The 4th in Mr Barton’s Gapminder World Video series. Is there a link between how wealthy a country is and the average Body Mass Index of its population? Is there a link between the wealth of a country and the quality of its population’s teeth? There’s only one way to find out! Below the video you will find an option to download it and play it on a larger screen, or by clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series

The 3rd in Mr Barton's Gapminder World Video series. Here we look at the relationship between the age women are getting married and their fertility rate, and we observe some startling results. Once again three countries are chosen for our focus: China, the UK and Algeria. Below the video you will find an option to download it and play it on a larger screen, or by clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series

12 questions on negative numbers that can be developed into a team game against the clock.

Displays all the multiples of a given number on a number grid. Both the number and the starting number of the grid can be altered.

The 5th in Mr Barton's Gapminder World Video series. What is the relationship between a country's wealth and their children&'s maths scores? Which country&';s children perform best at maths? And finally, can we use this data to make a case that boys are better at maths than girls? Below the video you will find an option to download it and play it on a larger screen, or by clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series

Gapminder Video 6 The 6th in Mr Barton's Gapminder World Video series. Is there a relationship between the wealth of a country and it's growth rate? Do rich counties keep getting richer, or do poorer countries grow faster as they have more capacity and potential? And what on earth is going on with China? As ever, there is only one way to find out! Below the video you will find an option to download it and play it on a larger screen, or by clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series

A video tutorial covering biased dice and probability. Ideal for KS3, GCSE and A Level maths. The 40th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. This week we take a look at how Autograph can be used to introduce students to the concept of experimental probability. You can very quickly set up a probability distribution function of your choice (fair dice, biased dice, numbered balls in a bag, you name it!), take samples of varying sizes, and create diagrams from the data.

A video tutorial on how to use Autograph to demonstrate integration, the Trapezium and Simpson's Rule. A good guide on how to use the software to show your students the origins of these techniques rather than just showing them the formulae. The 46th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. This week we move from differentiation to integration by taking a look at how Autograph can be used to introduce students to the concept of the area under the curve. The good news is that Autograph can easily and clearly illustrate estimating the area using rectangles.

UPDATE: Supporting worksheet by Brian Arnold! :-) The 60th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. In this video we take a look at an activity I like to use with my classes called Co-ordinate Battleships. I use this either to revise the equations of straight line graphs or even to introduce the topic. Teams take it in turn to launch their missiles (in the form of straight line graphs) in order to sink the ships (the co-ordinates). We look at how you can easily create this page on Autograph, and then some possible extension work after the sea battles are over.