Jonathan Hall
@studymaths.bsky.social
1.2K followers 180 following 510 posts
Maths teacher. Creator of MathsBot.com.
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studymaths.bsky.social
A very windy 6k for me. Lots of branches down to hurdle.
studymaths.bsky.social
Arbitrary and necessary mathematics.

One of those most important ideas to consider when planning and delivering maths lessons.

Here's my one-slide summary based on Dave Hewitt's article here:
www.lboro.ac.uk/media/media/...
Mathematical conventions must be explicitly taught, but mathematical ideas can be discovered or deduced.​
Dave Hewitt refers to these as arbitrary and necessary.

A couple of tasks to bring about awareness of the properties of odd and even numbers.
studymaths.bsky.social
I used this task this week to introduce Y10 to simultaneous equations.

Drawing attention to important decisions that need to be made.

#MathsToday
"What's the same and what's different?"
4 pairs of simultaneous equations with very similar coefficients.
studymaths.bsky.social
I assumed this was a running post at first glance.

Happy weekend!
Reposted by Jonathan Hall
karenshancock.bsky.social
In #MathsToday (ish - probably last week actually) some activities with Surds.
Answers and better quality versions on the website links.

kshancock.co.uk/lessonresour...

kshancock.co.uk/lessonresour...
Maths worksheet titled 'Multiplying surds'. Students are instructed to pair surds from a 3x4 grid (including values like √7, 2√3, √48, etc.) to match answers in boxes below (e.g., 14, 6√7, 20√7, 144, 60√2, 21√10). A crossed-out calculator icon indicates calculators are not allowed. Maths worksheet titled 'Fully factorise'. It includes an example: √2y − √50x = √2(y − 5x), followed by four expressions to factorise: √3x + √75, √98 + 4√2x, √48 + √12x, and √32y² + √18xy."
studymaths.bsky.social
I wasn’t going to, but yet again your post made me get out of the door. Thanks!
Sweaty me Running stats
studymaths.bsky.social
“Sir, let me cook” is apparently slang for “excuse me while I try and work this out”
studymaths.bsky.social
Update: You can now create custom tests on the full-sized version of the KS2 arithmetic generator.

This quick video shows how:

mathsbot.com/primary/ks2
studymaths.bsky.social
Oops, sorry! I’ll turn the contrast down in future.
studymaths.bsky.social
In #MathsToday I did this as a starter on estimation.

With the aim of getting pupils to consider which counters are the 'significant' ones.
Reposted by Jonathan Hall
germinalmaths.bsky.social
Which One Doesn’t Belong?
Mathsbot Rods courtesy of @studymaths.bsky.social
#WODB
Reposted by Jonathan Hall
jwrightmaths.bsky.social
If you want to see my nonsense in person and hate teaching significant figures, this is the session for you!
lasalleed.bsky.social
📣 #MathsConf39: The Language of Significance & Standard Form with Josh Wright (@jwrightmaths.bsky.social)

Unpack misconceptions, explore clearer teaching methods & rethink shortcuts to make these tricky topics stick.

completemaths.com/community/ma...

#UKMathsChat
studymaths.bsky.social
I’m sure I’ll be right as rain by Monday morning.
studymaths.bsky.social
The start of term germs have got me so probably no run this weekend. 🤧
studymaths.bsky.social
After they got good at decomposing numbers, I used this to introduce the idea of finding LCMs efficiently.

#MathsToday
studymaths.bsky.social
In a few years time you could ask them “what surds can you draw on square grid?” which links nicely to this task.
studymaths.bsky.social
It worked for me, but maybe because all your workshops have quirky titles.
Reposted by Jonathan Hall
lasalleed.bsky.social
📣 #MathsConf39: The Best That Has Been Taught and Shared with Nathan Day (@nathanday314)

Explore all-time great maths tasks, why they work, and how to adapt or design your own to enrich lessons & inspire learners.

completemaths.com/community/ma...

#UKMathsChat
studymaths.bsky.social
Me too! Not happy but I’m moving with the times.
studymaths.bsky.social
In #MathsTomorrow I'm going to try and develop a sense of why we round numbers.

Any good ones to add to my list?
There were 88,966 people at the world cup final.​

The moon is 225,622 miles from Earth.​

The battle of Hastings was in 1066.​

The GBP to USD exchange rate is £1 = $1.25894. ​

The speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s.​

The first ten digit of Pi are 3.141592653​

136 μg of poison dart frog venom is lethal.​

There are 2,618 Greggs in the UK.​
studymaths.bsky.social
It's really important to learn to walk before you try and run.
studymaths.bsky.social
I used this differently this week. I put a 1000 seconds on the clock and then used it with MWB's with the class.

I think it worked really well and was a fun way to introduce prime factorisation.

mathsbot.com/puzzles/prim... #MathsToday
Prime Factory!
Prime Factor! A different way to pracitse your times tables.
mathsbot.com
studymaths.bsky.social
In #MathsToday I gave my 7yo the calculation in the box at the top.

This was his method.
78+36+29 solved using a slightly unusual column method.