A case study from Mathematics Matters which looks at the development of optical fibres and how mathematical models have simplified the process of producing them. Modern society relies heavily on a variety of networks, but we don’t fully understand how they behave. Mathematical network theory lets us create models...

In this video, Cathie Wells from the University of Reading talks about how she is helping aircraft conserve fuel which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by making use of high resolution forecasts of three dimensional wind speeds in the atmosphere. In the associated activity, students are asked to calculate the best...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). With efforts to improve energy efficiency focused on green transport, sustainable power generation, growing your own food and reducing waste, it is often easy to forget that the very buildings we live and work in...

These Cre8ate maths activities develop multi-stage logistical thinking. The Planning ahead puzzle develops process skills of problem solving: working systematically and creating, describing and experimenting with systematic strategies. Making tea is concerned with finding the best way to organise time and draws on...

In this resource from the DfE Standards Unit, students learn to interpret decimals and fractions using scales and areas, find equivalent fractions, order and relate fractions and decimals and to reflect on and discuss these processes. Students will have met these concepts before. Many, however, may still have...

In this DfE Standards Unit resource, students learn to understand that probabilities are assigned values between 0 and 1. They will on an decide an appropriate value for the probability of a given event and use some of the vocabulary associated with probability such as
‘certain’, ‘impossible’, ‘likely’. They...

This Nuffield 13 - 16 module is one for the start of the three-year programme. This B unit provided enough material for six double periods in the third year of secondary school (year nine). The teachers’ guide included four worksheets to supplement the students’ booklet...

Produced by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, this practical activity allows students to create an origami model of DNA, demonstrating its double helix structure. The activity provides a hands-on way of learning about the structure of DNA.

Two templates are available as PDFs; a standard template with the...

This article, from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) publication ‘Mathematics Teaching’, is taken from MT217.

Jenni Ingram and Robert Ward-Penny give their thoughts on classrooms today by examining the variety of activities that can be seen in the mathematics classroom. Students are frequently...

This booklet is unusual in this series as it develops one theme, genetic inheritance, to show the use of...