Into the classroom

Tasks for assessment lessons

You can find support materials for the three suggested classroom tasks here. These include big-print versions of the tasks (useful for whiteboards) and any software you need Choose the task you are using from the lower left of the screen. Press "play" to have the task read out.

Text messaging

The task

• How many Text messaging are sent if four people all send messages to each other?
• How many Text messaging are sent with different numbers of people?
• Approximately how many Text messaging would travel in cyberspace if everyone in your school took part?
• Can you think of other situations that would give rise to the same mathematical relationship?

Text messaging

Looking at sample work

Looking at sample work

Look carefully at the examples of other students' work on the Text messaging task. Imagine you are their teacher. Go through each piece of work and write comments on each one.

• Have they chosen a sensible method?
• Are the calculations correct?
• Are the conclusions sensible?
• Is the work easy to understand?

Golden rectangles

In the 19th century, many adventurers travelled to North America to search for gold. A man named Dan Jackson owned some land where gold had been found. Instead of digging for the gold himself, he rented plots of land to the adventurers.

• Assuming each adventurer would like to have the biggest plot, how should he place his stakes? Explain your answer.

Read the following proposition:

Tie the ropes together! You can get more land if you work together than if you work separately.

• Investigate whether the proposition is true for two adventurers working together, still using four stakes.
• Is the proposition true for more than two people? Explain your answer.

Golden rectangles

Looking at sample work

Looking at sample work

Look carefully at the examples of other students' work on the Golden rectangles task. Imagine you are their teacher. Go through each piece of work and write comments on each one.

• Have they chosen a sensible method?
• Are the calculations correct?
• Are the conclusions sensible?
• Is the work easy to understand?

Counting trees

This diagram shows some trees in a plantation.

The circles show old trees and the triangles show young trees.

Tom wants to know how many trees there are of each type, but says it would take too long counting them all, one-by-one.

1. What method could he use to estimate the number of trees of each type? Explain your method fully.

2. On your worksheet, use your method to estimate the number of:

(a) Old trees

(b) Young trees

Counting trees

Looking at sample work

Looking at sample work

Look carefully at the examples of other students' work on the Counting trees task. Imagine you are their teacher. Go through each piece of work and write comments on each one.

• Have they chosen a sensible method?
• Are the calculations correct?
• Are the conclusions sensible?
• Is the work easy to understand?