Mathematics teaching materials

Materials from
The South Nottinghamshire Project

Written by Alan Bell, Alan Wigley and David Rooke with Maurice Hart, Eric Love and Malcolm Swan. Published by Shell Centre 1980 - 1983.

Functions and Graphs - Teachers' Guide
Price in UK pounds: £10.
Functions and Graphs - Pupils' Booklet (5 copies) Price in UK pounds: £10.
Algebra and Geometry (sold together)
Price in UK pounds: £10.

A range of materials providing material for an investigative approach in a structured framework for pupils aged 11-16 in middle or secondary schools. All the materials are written with a whole-class approach in mind, and are designed to cater for all abilities by offering differentiated tasks and extensions, so may be used in both setted and mixed ability groups. The Journey into Maths materials are described on another page.

Functions and Graphs
These are teacher's and pupils' booklets suggesting events and situations which pupils might represent graphically, with discussion of the meaning of the various features of the graph. This is a precursor of The Language of Functions and Graphs.

Algebra
This is a collection of material for algebra covering most of the secondary school course. It was designed as a follow up to the material for Stages 1 and 2 of Journey into Maths. Its emphasis is to put algebra into a meaningful setting, by offering mainly numerical situations containing some patterns and properties to investigate, for which algebra provides a means of descriptions, explanation and proof of the generality of the pattern. Some of these situations are chosen to demand some particular aspect of algebra, such as the distributive law: these provide an opportunity to become aware of the law, to investigate its validity by trying various numbers, and to practice its use. The reading and interpretation of various formulae is another aspect of the work. It is assumed that teachers will select material to suit their own needs and those of their classes.

Geometry
This is a wide-ranging collection of ideas for geometrical activities for the secondary years. It makes use of photographs, paper constructions, loci and other materials to raise interesting spatial problems. Visualisation and visual reasoning and the making of suitable representations are emphasised.