Staying with primary resources, Miss A has shared her (free) Maths overview 1-6 on TES Resources. This curriculum overview for years 1-6 includes the main parts of the National Curriculum, White Rose guidance links and a link to the NCETM maths mastery assessment document.
Miss A has also created overviews for English and Science.
So, to the other end of the school, for Year 13 Further Mathematics, an update to my post on Further Calculus (for Further Mathematics). We can use WolframAlpha or Desmos for Improper Integrals.
The image shows this resource on Improper Integrals from the University of Pennsylvania, a clear presentation with worked examples.
Such integrals could be shown using WolframAlpha or Desmos. In Desmos, simply type b=infinity for the upper limit. For more on Integration with Desmos, see Learn Desmos: Integrals.
There has been a great deal of interest in my post on HELM notes, note that in Section 48 we have Engineering Case Studies, which provides a compendium of Engineering Case Studies illustrating many applications of Mathematics. I like the way each case study starts by stating the Mathematical Skills involved.
HELM Notes (48)
The example above seems like a good excuse to show some holiday pictures! (Photograph by David Young).
Keeping Year 10 going over the summer…from Mr Chadburn who has produced calendars for July and August which can be given to Year 10 students for daily practice of key mathematical skills over the summer break.
For A complete set of A Level Statistics and Mechanics Knowledge Organisers – see these resources from Lucyjc. These resources are available free on TES Resources: Statistics and Mechanics. All include Key Words and Definitions and What Do I Need to Know sections.
And for Pure Mathematics, we have from @misschakera a set for the first year of A Level.
I have added all these very attractively presented resources to this post on Knowledge Organisers which includes links to resources and very importantly the use of knowledge organisers.
OCR Planning – Support highlights
Staying with A Level, from OCR – see the new resources for A Level to help planning for 20-21 Schemes of Work. New resources are available: new Curriculum Planners, Support Highlights & Resource Plus Mapping resources. Look under ‘Planning’ for: OCR Maths A and OCR Maths B (MEI). The mapping document illustrates the many resources on the Cambridge International Resource Plus site that can be used for A Level teaching. The Support Highlight documents provide a very useful overview of the support available for teachers.
Dan Pearcy
From Seneca’s Virtual Conference, I learned of a new site to most definitely keep an eye from Dan Pearcy.
New content will be added and I am very much looking forward to exploring this site. There is already much food for thought here.
And finally…
An excellent read from Blake Harvard, Desiring Difficulties asking how do we get students to desire the difficulties produced by more effective learning strategies? Note the poster available at the end of the post. Try demonstrating what works to the students – let them see the effectiveness of the strategies discussed.
Talking to students about effective learning strategies I have always found the resources from the The Learning Scientistsso useful.
For valuable resources to support the techniques described here see the excellent downloadable materialson study strategies. Note how each strategy is backed up by research.
If you have not come across the HELM Project before, the project was designed to support the mathematical education of engineering students and includes an extensive collection of notes which include very clear worked examples. Whilst the workbooks cover the basic engineering mathematics and statistics teaching for first and second year students in a typical UK undergraduate engineering degree many of the workbooks include content appropriate for A Level Mathematics and particularly, Further Mathematics. For easy access to these resources, the HELM Project Workbooks are hosted by Loughborough University’s Mathematics Learning Support Centre.
Looking at Loughborough University’s Mathematics Learning Support Centre as well as providing access to the workbooks, we can additionally read about the past, present and future of the resources and see the details of the HELM consortium members and their roles.
You will see from Loughborough’s description that each workbook varies in length from 25 pages to 75 pages (average 50 pages), and includes Mathematics (and Statistics) for engineering simply explained, worked examples, tasks and exercises with answers provided. Note the last workbooks in the series, Workbook 49 is a Student’s Guide and Workbook 50 a Tutor’s Guide. The Student guide includes a description of the format of the workbooks and a comprehensive list of contents.
For exploring the Large Data, on AQA’s All About Maths see AQA Large Data Set –Guidance and Worksheetsincluding a tool to help support teaching the statistics content of the specification. This is an amended version of the large data set spreadsheet, the first three sheets are as on the AQA large data set but there are many additional sheets which allow students to explore the large data set. The tools are all provided for students, they do not need knowledge of Excel, meaning time can be spent on interpreting the data rather than learning about Excel. The worksheet on Exploring the Large Data Set could I think be usefully used lower down the school to get students used to working with more data.
For UK Examination Boards AQA, OCR A, OCR B MEI Further Mathematics.
This posts gives details of the specifications and teaching resources for Dimensional Analysis.
First a look at the specifications and we see a similarity between all three specifications. For AQA see the first image below. OCR A and B (MEI) additionally mention the relationship between the units of a quantity and its dimensions, with OCR B MEI adding ‘be able to change the units in which a quantity is given’.
Specifications AQA: Optional application 1 – mechanics Assessed at AS and A Level
AQA have a very helpful Teaching Guidance document for Mechanics, explaining how AQA have interpreted the content of the specification, the guide provides examples of how the content of the specification may be assessed.
The guidance is available on AQA’s free Maths portal for teachers, All about Maths. The resources are for teachers who offer, or are considering offering AQA maths qualifications. See this page for how to register.
OCR A Mechanics (Optional paper Y543) Assessed at AS and A Level OCR B MEI Note that mapping documents from the legacy specifications to the new specifications are available on this page in the Further Maths series.
Examination Questions
New Specifications
AQA Specimen questions paper and mark scheme. The only question on Dimensional Analysis is question 2, a multiple choice question on dimensional consistency. AS Practice Papers and A Level are available on All About Maths
For some Legacy questions and mark schemes see the paragraph on MathedUp below.
The Legacy Mechanics 3 papers which included Dimensional Analysis are available on All About Maths.
From amsp this brilliant collection of short videos produced by the legacy Further Mathematics Support Program supports the Further Maths Specification. I have used many of these successfully in class and recommended them to students to support their studies. Look at any of the examination boards to see the coverage for the course. Check the list for your examination board and you can find the videos on Dimensional Analysis for AQA, OCR A and OCR B MEI.
OCR Section Check In Tests and Delivery Guides OCR have very useful check in tests on Dimensional Analysis with fully worked solutions for OCR A and OCR B MEI. These both seem to use the same questions.
Each check in has 10 questions, the first four questions are are routine procedural questions which primarily assess ‘Use and apply standard techniques (AO1)’ The remaining questions primarily assess ‘Reason, interpret and communicate mathematically (AO2)’ and ‘Solve problems within maths and in other contexts (AO3)’
At least half of the questions are appropriate for the AS course.
These Delivery Guides discuss general approaches to the delivery of the topic, common difficulties and common misconceptions. A good approach, whenever a formula is taught, a dimensional analysis can be performed to check the validity. Both guides have the same suggested list of Further Resources including some good Nrich resources such as this article. The Springer notes are helpful, with clearly explained examples. The University of Guelph resource seems to have an unwanted full stop at the end of the address – the resource is here.
MathedUp – Mohammed LadakOn Mohammed Ladak’s ‘MathedUp’ see his A Level Further Maths Takeaway, a wonderful source of exam questions by topic with mark schemes. AQA questions have been used here.
A video of a legacy AQA question is provided, also four challenge questions with mark schemes.
For a very comprehensive set of notes with many fully worked examples and exercises, have a look at Section 47 of the HELM Project which was designed to support the mathematical education of engineering students and includes an extensive collection of notes which include very clear worked examples. For easy access to these resources, the HELM Project Workbooks are hosted by Loughborough University’s Mathematics Learning Support Centre.Alternatively, the complete set is hosted by the Open University. To access the Open University resources you will need to create an account (easy and free), this will also give you access to the numerous free online courses.
Staying with primary resources, Miss A has shared her (free) Maths overview 1-6 on TES Resources. This curriculum overview for years 1-6 includes the main parts of the National Curriculum, White Rose guidance links and a link to the NCETM maths mastery assessment document.
On Mohammed Ladak’s ‘MathedUp’ see his 
For a very comprehensive set of notes with many fully worked examples and exercises, have a look at Section 47 of the HELM Project which was designed to support the mathematical education of engineering students and includes an extensive collection of notes which include very clear worked examples. For easy access to these resources, the 