GAIM Activities: Practical Problems
GAIM Activities are open-ended tasks where achievements in using and applying mathematics can be assessed alongside content. In the practical problems students apply mathematics to real-life situations.
GAIM provides teachers with 80 Activities (40 Investigations and 40 Practical Problems) as a resource for teaching and assessment. These are open-ended tasks designed to encourage students to use, apply and develop mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding and to integrate these in order to make decisions and draw conclusions.
The Activities are suitable for a wide attainment range and can be used with whole classes, with small groups of students, or with individuals. These activities also enable teachers to credit student achievement in relation to other aspects of mathematics by looking at the mathematical content in the work.
Practical problems
Practical problems are adaptations of real-life situations, manageable in the classroom or local environment, that require students to apply their mathematics. There is no specific answer to each practical problem and students produce solutions at a level of sophistication appropriate to their mathematical attainment.
Examples include:
• Every Second Counts - Using transport timetables, maps and knowledge of speeds to plan a route leading as far away from school as possible in one hour.
• Beach Guest House - Booking guests into appropriate rooms in a hotel.
• Cemetery Maths - Collecting relevant data from a visit to a local graveyard or a cemetery for testing a hypothesis.
• Design a Table - Involving diagrams, measurements, scale.
HEALTH and SAFETY
Any use of a resource that includes a practical activity must include a risk assessment. Please note that collections may contain ARCHIVE resources, which were developed at a much earlier date. Since that time there have been significant changes in the rules and guidance affecting laboratory practical work. Further information is provided in our Health and Safety guidance.
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Review
Activity time: 15 minutes
Level / prior knowledge: ability to…
Activity time: 15 minutes
Level / prior knowledge: ability to organise information
Subject / curriculum links / skills: Logical investigation in a practical context
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Extra resources: paper
Commentary: This review is focusing on ‘Club Night’ pages 55 & 56 of the ‘Practical Problems 1 -10’ resource.
I used this resource with my year 9 middle ability class of 18 pupils as a starter activity. Pupils worked in pairs. Each pair was given a copy of the task on a piece of card. Rather than give pupils the statements on one piece of card I chose to cut out the statements so they were on individual pieces of card making it easier for pupils to organise the information. Pupils were required to draw a table to show their workings. As a class they were then asked to discuss what skills they had used and what jobs require you to use the skills.
Generally the resources within this collection at first glance appear very dated but many are good quality investigations and others can be modernised to suit pupils today.
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Resource author
Resource by: Nelson Thornes
Collections
The resource is part of Nelson Thornes
- Graded Assessment in Mathematics (GAIM)
- GAIM Activities: Practical Problems
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