An Autograph Player activity to illustrate the Alternate Segment circle theorem. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

The 20th in a series of videos where each week I visit my favourite mathematics websites. An oldie but a goodie here! Count On used to be one of my most visited websites in my early years of teaching. It has been a while since it was last updated, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t excellent stuff on here. We take a quick look at some of the games before focussing our attention on an excellent analysis of common mathematical misconceptions which could be sued a stimulus for departmental meetings.

The 54th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. The first in the Transformations of Functions Trilogy of videos where we look at how we can use Autograph to introduce students to the topic of transforming graphs. We see how to enter the f(x) notation, and how to make best use of the wonderful constant controller to get all the stretches, shifts and squashes that you could possibly want. Clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

As a teacher, I am obsessed by questions. The best questions are those that get the students thinking and ignite their interests. This website, created by Dan Meyer, is all about interesting questions. When you visit the website you are presented with an image and asked to write down the first question that comes to mind. You can then access a whole back catalogue of images and questions on everything from gumball machines to dominoes. These provide outstanding stimuli for lessons, and highlight the practical and many varied uses of mathematics.

An Autograph Player activity designed to investigate box and whisker diagrams. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

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

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.

I know, I know, guilty as charged! This week’s Web Whizz video features my website. However, hopefully you will forgive me when you see the brand new and completely free Autograph Player activities that are now available. Unlike Autograph files, these activities do not need the software installed, which means you can use them completely freely to demonstrate topics in class, or set them as homework assignments for your students. Here we look at activities about transformations, angles, circle theorem, battleships and scatter diagrams.

An Autograph Player activity where students investigate enlargements by playing golf. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

An Autograph Player activity to investigate the equations of straight line graphs (y = mx + c). You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

An Autograph Player activity to illustrate Vectors. Students must put Vector Man back together again. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

The 52nd in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. Just a quickie here about how you can use Autograph to add that finishing touch to your perfect worksheet. Whether you want a lovely set of axes, some square paper, or some old fashioned graph paper, Autograph can satisfy your needs. We also look at a handy way of getting the size of the grid and the number range just right! Clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

The 63rd in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. This is the much-anticipated(!) sequel to last week’s Line Symmetry in Rectangles. Here we look at how we might create an Autograph page to look at line symmetry more generally by allowing us to alter the original shape. This requires a sneaky use of vectors, and this technique may have applications in other Autograph activities that you may wish to create. Clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 9. Based on RISP 9 from Jonny Griffiths. Pupils choose certain values and draw their own circle. All circles go through the origin. 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 video from the Autograph team. In this investigation into a strange property of cubics, students would normally first be introduced to a special case, for example y = (x -2)(x + 3)(x + 4), and then asked to look at this more general case. Clicking on the web-link below takes you to all the videos in this series.

An Autograph Player activity where students use their knowledge of straight line graphs to sink some co-ordinate battleships. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

The website Wordle came to prominence in around 2009, and has been popping up at conferences, lectures and around the display boards of schools ever since. In this video we take a look at how to use the website, and more importantly how we can use it effectively in the maths classroom. Ideas suggested include using it to summarise examiners reports, to capture the key topics that your class find difficult, and then as a starter activity to introduce a new topic. This is only scratching the surface of the potential of Wordle, so if you have any ideas on how it can be used, please share below!

An Autograph Player activity to illustrate The Angles in the Same Segment circle theorem. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

A free online Autograph Player activity designed to allow your students to practise solving trigonometry problems (missing sides and angles) involving isosceles triangles. You can use this activity on the interactive whiteboard, or for your students to investigate on their own. Autograph does not need to be installed to use this activity (so your students can even use it at home), but you will need to install the free Autograph Player add-on (instructions given after clicking the link). For a full list of Autograph Activities, please click on the other web-link.

The 50th in Mr Barton's Autograph Video tutorial series. In the final Autograph Video of 2011 we take a look at some of the lovely shapes you can make using Volumes of Revolution. We hint at how it is possible to derive the formulae for some common 3D objects (for more on this see Mr Barton’s “Autograph Activities” textbooks!), how you can create volumes around the y-axis, and finally we look at some of the fascinating shapes you can form with areas between curves and lines. Plenty to keep you busy until the end of the year. Clicking on the web-link you can see all the videos in this series.