Secondary Maths - Simply take a set of white cards

Simply take … A set of white cards

This is an activity that could be used to improve students understanding of types of number.
Students could work in pairs initially, checking the problems that they write for each other before passing them on to other students to solve. 

Using mini whiteboards ask each student to write a number in the centre of their board. 
• Around the number write four facts about their number then...ask them to delete the number they have chosen.

To focus on specific types of numbers you could ask them to
- include key words
- use any particular description only once

• Students can then pass their board to their partner and ask them to identify what number
could go in the centre. 
• Their partner may well find more than one possible solution.
They could work together to find as many solutions as possible to each of their problems
• The level of challenge could be increased by asking them to find a set of four  descriptions so that there is a unique solution to their problem
• Once the students are ready they can exchange boards with other pairs, and solve each other’s problems

GCSE Science - What future for vocational science?

Vocational science at KS4 has long had a rocky ride – even its title has been questionable.  We went through a period a few years back of openly referring to some qualifications as vocational GCSEs. Then the v-word became seen as negative baggage with connotations of being second rate.  More importantly, it wasn’t accurate; courses that focus on the applications of science aren’t necessarily any more vocational.  (If you want to see a vocational course look at a high attaining group of A level chemists hell bent on becoming doctors.)

Such courses have had a twilight existence of being loved by some and mistrusted by others.  GNVQ Science came and went, as did GCSE double award Applied Science.  Its half brother, GCSE Additional Applied Science, last year found itself cold shouldered by the English Baccalaureate. 

Yet there has long been a call in many schools for a course that provides a viable alternative to “academic” GCSEs.  Some students have said that whilst following a course such as BTEC Extended Certificate or OCR Nationals that “it’s the first time they’ve experienced success in science”.

Now there’s rapid reinvention following the DfE’s acceptance of the Wolf Report.  These courses are being modified to comply with the DfE’s seven criteria, including at least 20% of the assessment being external, a degree of synoptic assessment and proven progression to Level 3 courses.  The glittering prize is recognition in the 2014 Performance Tables, though even that comes with conditions – no more than two such courses per student will be allowable.  We should know by the end of January what has been accepted.

Such developments aren’t necessarily wrong of course.  Synoptic assessment discourages a fragmented or atomised view of science and an external exam may well serve to raise the status of the qualification. A tightrope is being walked by the developers – too different to a GCSE questions the rigour and status, too similar questions the function and purpose. 

In fact, the impact of the changes may go further than that.  Successfully restructured non-GCSE courses may enable schools to offer a meaningful range of alternative curriculum pathways at KS4; these pathways may have a stronger common core of skills including the processes of enquiry, numeracy, literacy and the conducting of practical investigations.

Is this the point where vocational science emerges from the twilight?  And does the agenda then become clearer for the skills, processes and concepts that need to be developed in KS3 to act as an effective foundation?

Ed Walsh
Science Advisor for Cornwall Learning

Secondary Science - Salt

Some of us like to put a little salt on our food to enhance the flavour.  While there is no doubt that many of us have too much salt in our diets there is a lot more to salt.   Salt is truly one of the chemical “superstuffs” that makes an appearance in many aspects of the KS3 and KS4 science curriculum.   The topics below could be used as projects and research ideas in specific areas of the curriculum, or the questions developed into starter or plenary discussions.

Salt and diet
Salt or to be precise, the sodium in the sodium chloride is an essential element for all living things and is involved in transport across cell membranes and the function of muscle and nerve cells.
• How are sodium (and potassium) ions moved across cell membranes?
• Why do nerves and muscles depend on sodium ions?
• What effect does too little or too much salt have on health?

Salt and food
Salt is used for flavouring and as a preservative.  Before canning, refrigeration and vacuum packing became common, salting was an important way of keeping food for long periods.
• What foods have been preserved using salt?
• How does salt preserve food?  (investigate osmosis)

Salt and trade
Prehistoric people living away from the sea found it difficult to get enough salt so it became one of the earliest traded commodities reflected in the names of places where salt was found and traded.
• Where is salt found in the UK?  (look for place-names with “-wich” in their name)
• Why does the city of Salzburg in Austria have salt in its name?
• What places are named after salt?  (look for “sal” and “hal” in names)

Salt in words
Salt was such an important and useful commodity that it has had a big impact on language.
• What words are derived from salt?
• How are words like “salary” and “salad” linked to salt?

Salt and geology
The presence of salt deposits tells us a lot about past climates and earth movements.
• How did the sea become salty?
• How did rock salt deposits come to be buried underground?

Salt and climate
Ocean currents have a big effect on our climate and weather.  Some scientists worry that the warming effect of the Gulf Stream could be affected by the melting of arctic ice.
• How does the density of salt water compare to pure water?
• What causes the ocean currents to circulate around the world?

Salt and roads
Every year thousands of tonnes of rock salt are spread on roads to keep them free of ice.
• Where does the rock salt used on icy roads come from?
• How does salt reduce the amount of ice on roads?

Salt and water
Salt is extracted from seawater and rock salt by driving off the water from salt solutions.  Other salts in sea water have a bitter taste and must not be mixed with table salt.  Table salt has other substances added to keep it dry and free-flowing.
• What happens if pure salt is left in the air?
• How is salt extracted from sea water?
• What substances are added to table salt and why are they added?

Salt and elements
In the Middle Ages salt was thought to be one of the three “principles” or elements (along with sulfur and mercury) from which other substances were derived.  Lavoisier suspected that salt contained a metallic element, but it was Davy who isolated sodium.
• Who was Paracelsus and why did he think that salt was a special substance?
• Who was Lavoisier and how did he revolutionise chemistry?
• Why did Lavoisier think that salt contained oxygen?
• How did Davy isolate sodium?

Salt and crystals
The cubic shape of sodium chloride crystals has intrigued people for centuries but it took the discovery of X rays to work out how the sodium and chloride ions were arranged. 
• What is the arrangement of sodium and chloride ions in salt crystals and why are they arranged in this pattern?
• How did W.H.Bragg and W.L.Bragg discover the structure of salt?
• How has X ray crystallography proved useful?

Salt and industry
Salt has found many uses apart from in food, for example in making glass and soap.  In the nineteenth century the use of salt in manufacturing processes led to the growth of the chemical industry.
• How is salt used to make soap?
• How did the Leblanc process cause the development of the chemical industry? (for example in the north-west of England)
• What are the industrial uses of salt today?

Peter Ellis

Secondary Business - Using adverts to teach strategic theory

A Level AQA BUSS3 and BUSS4

For both Units 3 & 4 at A2 level, students need to have a good understanding of strategy and the theories surrounding them. They then need to be able to apply & analyse these strategies, to either the case study for Unit 3, or to the essay question for Unit 4 to be able to gain ‘good’ level marks in the exam.

Ansoff’s Matrix & Porter's Generic Strategy are two very important strategies for students to consider when analysing businesses, and instead of teaching the theory first, a good way to get students to be thinking about what business can do, would be to ask them to consider businesses first and to think about how they can stand out, gain a USP, get competitive advantage and to also hopefully improve their financial position.

Activity Part One
An activity that I have used with my students to look at this, is to consider both Virgin & British Airways - the airline industry has been hit hard due to the recession, and British Airways in particular has struggled to make profit. I first split my students into groups of around 4 (depending on your class size) and I then ask them to watch the 2 adverts that are hyperlinked below.
• Official Virgin Atlantic Advert 2011 - HD 'Your airline's either got it or it hasn't' - YouTube
• British Airways - Our advert 2011: To Fly. To Serve. - YouTube
One thing that students should pick up on, are that both of the adverts are focused around customer service, and high level service! Then ask students in their groups to think about the Marketing Mix for both of the businesses - download the activity sheet for this here. From this they should be thinking that both of the businesses are very similar…. Maybe considering Porter's issue of ‘being stuck in the middle’, you can be reinforcing this link to the theory - maybe on the whiteboard.

Activity Part Two
Next ask students in their groups to think about WHAT the 2 businesses could do to (again thinking of Porter) ‘differentiate’ themselves from each other - again see the sheet here.

My students came up with: they could offer new products, they could fly different routes, they could change their prices, or they could go into a completely different market and do something other than flights. All of these ideas can be fitted into Ansoff’s matrix without the students having knowingly studied the theory.  Give students the second handout from the activity sheet, and ask them to place their ideas into the matrix, and select the strategy that they think would be the most important for the business. They should in their groups be taking into consideration the level of risk, cost and impact on resources.

Finally, you can input some theory, to reiterate the strategies for both Ansoff’s Matrix & Porter's Generic Strategy, but this tutor led input will be minimal as students have already thought of and decided upon the strategies for the business!

BUSS3 & BUSS4
The activity above, builds on what students have learnt at AS - the Marketing Mix - and gets them to use this to consider theory and strategy for A2.  The activity also covers the important skill areas that examiners will assess in both Unit’s this year – Knowledge, Application, Analysis & Evaluation.

Donna Jestin

Teacher of Business Studies Notre Dame College & Senior Examiner for AQA

All Secondary - The Real Meaning of Christmas

So, Christmas is fast approaching and all the students want to do is watch a video or make Christmas cards, and frankly, you’re tempted to give in as it you’ve worked ridiculously hard and your thoughts are now turned towards your own lie-ins and recuperation… but what if you could have a Christmas based lesson that kept the students engaged and learning and was still fun? Here is an idea that can be used both in and out of the RE classroom!

Resources: A variety of old Christmas cards (just the fronts)

Step 1: In pairs/ small groups students imagine that they have never encountered or experienced Christmas before, perhaps they are aliens from another planet who have received these cards in the post. Students then identify as many different features about Christmas from the cards (Gifts, snow, robins, trees, stars, perhaps some people on a camel?!)

Step 2: In their groups, students can either try to piece together the meaning of Christmas only from the evidence they have gathered from the cards. They must try to include and explain the reasons for all of the features they have identified into a story about the festival and its meaning (they must not use any prior knowledge).

Step 3: Students feed their stories/ meanings of Christmas back to the class

Step 4: Discuss - What do students believe is the true meaning of Christmas? Did any of their presentations show any of this?

OR

Step 1: As above

Step 2: Students research the meanings of the different features/ symbolisms associated with Christmas from their cards.

Step 3: Create a leaflet to other ‘aliens’ who do not know about Christmas, where the festival originated from, what its symbolisms mean and what Christmas means to both Christians and non-Christians.

To make this a more meaningful RE-focussed lesson, students can compare the similarities and differences between the Christian and non-Christian elements, and explore whether there is a common link between the two (i.e the hope and promise of the new-born baby Jesus for Christians and the hope and promise of the return of light in the depth of winter for Pagans).

Wishing you all a relaxing end of term...!

Teresa Langler

Head of Beliefs and Values

Clyst Vale Community College

Secondary English - Linking Assessment Objectives

Regardless of whether we are teaching a combined or single-entry GCSE curriculum, the presence of the Assessment Objectives should, we know, be at the forefront of our minds as teachers when planning our courses and schemes of work.

This can, in some cases, be more tricky at Key Stage 3 than Key Stage 4. After all, at GCSE, the awarding body has done the job for us; it is their role to devise the ways and means, the assessment points and the outcomes. They decide the relative weightings of each assessment objective and put in place a curriculum which we, to all intents and purposes, follow.

However, it can still be tricky to know what these assessment objectives actually mean. For colleagues new to the profession, without the experience of taking examination classes through to the end point, without having seen exemplar materials and been part of moderation and standardisation sessions, it can be hard to get our heads around what these rather nebulous descriptors of achievement look like in practice.

For example, two of the GCSE English Literature objectives are:
AO1: respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations

AO2: explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings

In the best responses, these two objectives are linked. Candidates present a response which demonstrates their clear understanding of ideas and themes, with direct reference to how the writer has used language, or structure, or form, to present these ideas and themes.

In Section Three of Of Mice and Men, for example, George and Lennie are left alone in the bunk house. George lays out his solitaire hand using ‘a deliberate, thoughtful, slowness’. Lennie, however, ‘drummed on the table with his fingers’.

Candidates at all levels can say something about this. We all know about Steinbeck’s use of hands as metaphor in the novella as a whole: how he consistently uses this image to demonstrate his theme:  the plight of the working man. The use of the punctuation in the description of George’s behaviour, if students commented on it, the extra use of comma which intensifies the ‘deliberate, thoughtful, slowness’,  might be a means to accessing higher mark bands.  And then this description could be very successfully contrasted with Lennie’s childlike impatience – just like his impatience to ‘get the little place’.

A passage such as this lends itself very effectively to ‘responding to texts critically and imaginatively’, as well as ‘explaining how language / structure / form contribute to writer’s presentation of ideas, themes and settings’.

Sarah Darragh
English Teacher and author of A Bridge to GCSE English

Secondary Business - News Quiz 1/12/11

An interesting week in the business news, with the UK strike on November 30th, the biggest action since the 1970's, we will have to wait to see if this has had any affect. Also, a new internet search engine has been launched to rival Google & Yahoo, American Airlines shares fell by 81% and are now worth just 25cents and has China finally been affected by the global downturn?

Below is this weeks Business News Quiz. Click here for a printable version along with the answers and web links so that you can discuss some of the news stories with your classes.

1. It opened to the public on November 28th 2011, so what is YaCy?
   A new designer store in London ( )
   A new e-reader tablet ( )
   A new internet search engine ( )
   A new brand of sportswear from the USA ( )
   
   
2. The USA national debt has just risen above what figure this week?
   $10 trillion ( )
   $15 trillion ( )
   $25 trillion ( )
   $20trillion ( )
   
   
3. Hilton, the international hotel chain, is to open more than 20 new hotels in the UK, creating how many jobs?
   1500 ( )  
   2000 ( )
   2500 ( )
   3000 ( )
   
   
4. Which two car manufacturers are to work together on environmental-friendly motoring technology?
   BMW & Toyota ( )
   BMW & Ford ( )
   Toyota & Ford ( )
   Ford & Peugeot ( )
   
   
5. Samsung has won a major battle in its ongoing tussle with Apple, after an Australia court overturned a ban on the sale of its what in the country?
   Samsung Tocco Icon ( )
   Galaxy Tablet ( )
   Galaxy S 11 ( )
   Its new 16.1 mega pixel camera ( )
   
   
6. Australian Brewer Foster’s has been taken over by SAB Millar worth how much in Australian Dollars?
   $9.9bn ( )
   $10.5bn ( )
   $11.9bn ( )
   $8.9bn ( )
   
   
7. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says George Osborne's economic plans will mean a sharp drop in household income, by how much has it been predicted they fall?
   7.3% ( )
   3.3% ( )
   7.4% ( )
   10.4%( )
   
   
8. Which Young Apprentice candidate was fired this week after a buying task?
   Ben Fowler ( )
   Lewis Roman ( )
   Hayley Forrester ( )
   Gbemi Okunlola( )
   
   
9. China's manufacturing activity fell to a low in November, hurt by a slowdown in the global economy; this was the lowest output in how long?
   12 months ( )
   32 months ( )
   24 months( )
   18 months( )
   
   
10. American Airlines' parent company AMR Corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection are what happened to its share this week?
    Fell by 81% ( )
    Fell by 51% ( )
    Fell by 25% ( )
    Fell by 31%( ) 

Donna Jestin

Teacher of Business Studies Notre Dame College & Senior Examiner for AQA