Law - Using Forums to Build Students’ Analytical Skills

For this activity you will need:

• Access to an VLE such as Moodle
• A group of willing students.
• The 'carrot' in the activity is the idea that whatever comes out of the forums will form the basis for the students own individual essays or assessments which follow on form the Forum.

When opening any Forum for use in an educational context it is wise to set ground rules.

My Own Ground Rules for Working In Forums

• The forum is to be time-limited. After the allocated time it will be made available as an archive but not for on-going contributions. This gives a sense of urgency to the task.
• All students must participate and make at least (three) postings. You can tell students that part of the overall assessment grade will depend on their contribution in the forum.
• A posting can be an original idea or a development of another students posting.
• All postings, being public, must show a certain level of respect and be generally supportive. Any criticism must not be personalised or sarcastic, etc.

Example Task

Often it works best to take students into a computer room for the initial launch of the forum. This will definitely speed things up and hopefully create the  initial ‘buzz’ needed for students to return to the forum in their own time.

Teacher ‘seeds’ the forum with some initial comments and questions.

From my own subject - law - on a topic of reforming the law or murder I might ask:

• How satisfactory is it that we are relying on an ancient definition of such a serious crime?
• What issues are there arising from the definition?
• Is the Mens Rea for murder clear?
• What about recent cases about assisting a loved one to die or euthanasia – how satisfactory is the law?
• How might we consider reforming the law?

And so on...

Each prompt forms a thread within the Forum and students join in as many threads are they are willing and able to join.

Advantages of this Technique

• It leaves a permanent record of a discussion.
• It allows students to construct their own knowledge according to their own interest.
• It allows students across several groups to collaborate when they would normally be limited to the class group.
• It allows students to add in comments at any time.

The technique allows students to work collaboratively for a limited period of time and then use the resource to build an Individual piece of work. It works.

Nigel Briggs

Prose poetry: comparing texts

On the blog this week is a very modern exemplar of that unusual genre of literature, the prose poem. The term originates from the famous French poet, Baudelaire, who described his 1869 publication, ‘Paris Spleen’, as ‘Little Poems in Prose’.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines a prose poem as: "a work in prose that has some of the technical or literary qualities of a poem (such as regular rhythm, definitely patterned structure, or emotional or imaginative heightening) but that is set on a page as prose."

‘Chessiderata’ opens with a deliberate parody of Max Ehrmann’s famous prose poem, 'Desiderata'. Both pieces are overtly philosophical but whereas ‘Desiderata’ offers an unashamedly optimistic perspective on the Universe, ‘Chessiderata’ explores the darker side of life through the medium of the ancient war game of chess.

You might wish to read both of these texts with your students and then ask them to:

1. Analyse the ways in which ‘Chessiderata’ conforms to the prose poem genre.
2. Explain how the title, ‘Chessiderata’, and the accompanying picture are effective and how they link to the text.
3. Explain some of the thoughts and feelings that the author of ‘Chessiderata’ expresses about life.
4. Compare ‘Chessiderata’ with ‘Desiderata’ in terms of attitudes, use of language and structure.
5. Write a prose poem of your own in which you reflect upon an aspect of life which is of fundamental importance to you.

Copyright Brian Mitchell

This activity can be used to introduce students at KS3 to different types of literature and extend their abilities as critical readers. It is also suitable as preparation for the comparative and analytical components of GCSE.

Download: Chessiderata

Read: Desiderata

Peter Morrisson

Peter Morrisson is a teacher, author and director of animated films. He currently lectures at the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education. 

Notes from the history of Maths: Size matters...

On January 25th 2013, in Orlando, Florida, a computer running as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) discovered the latest, largest known prime number.

They are called Mersenne primes after Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), a French monk. He acted as a communication hub for mathematicians and scientists of the day, sharing ideas between the likes of Descartes, Fermat, Pascal, Huygens and Galileo. Born to a working class family he went to the same school as Descartes. Eventually he joined “The Order of Minims”, who considered themselves the least (minimi) of all religions on earth and lived a very simple life.

One of his works was “L'harmonie universelle”, where he was the first to publish the laws relating to the vibrating string: its frequency being proportional to the square root of the tension, and inversely proportional to the length.

At the time, many mathematicians were obsessed with finding a pattern in prime numbers. Marcus du Sautoy, in “The Music of the Primes”, suggests that his interest in music may have given him insight into the formula for Mersenne primes: 2ⁿ-1. If you double the frequency of a note, you go up an octave, creating harmonic notes. A shift of 1 might be expected to create a very dissonant note, not compatible with any previous frequency – a ‘prime’ note. However, the formula could also have been a result of the search for perfect numbers. A perfect number, such as 28, is the sum of its factors other than itself (1,2,4,7,14).

It was Euclid that showed that whenever the sum of powers of 2 is a prime number, then you can create a perfect number by multiplying the sum by the highest double added. Since the sum of powers of two is 2ⁿ – 1 (sum of a Geometric Series), in modern notation, Euclid showed that:
Whenever 2ⁿ – 1 is prime, then (2ⁿ – 1) x 2ⁿ-1 is perfect.

For example, 1 + 2 + 4 = 7 is prime, so 7 x 4 = 28 is perfect. However, 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 = 15 is not prime, so no perfect number can be generated. The next sum works (31) and this generates a perfect number (31 x 16 = 496).

So, the hunt for perfect numbers - which were felt to have religious significance -  became a search for when 2ⁿ – 1 was prime. In 1644, Mersenne conjectured that this was the case when n = 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 19, 31, 67, 127 and 257. It was quite a feat, at the time, to have found that 2047 (2¹¹-1) is not prime as 2047 = 23 x 89. No one knows how Mersenne came up with the list and it was only in 1876 that Edouard Lucas devised a method for checking Mersenne numbers.

He found 2⁶⁷-1 was not prime but 2⁶¹-1 was. Some have suggested this was a misprint in the original publication! It was also found that some numbers not on the list do produce primes (89 and 107). It was found that n=127 works and this remained the largest Mersenne prime until computers were invented. Only in 1952 was it found that 2⁵⁷ did not work. Whilst the Lucas method can show whether a Mersenne number is a prime or not, it doesn’t show how non-primes can be factorised. In 1903, Frank Cole gave a talk at the American Mathematical Society. Without saying a word he wrote:

2⁶⁷ – 1 = 193,707,721 x 761,838,257,287.

He got a standing ovation.

It is very difficult to factorise large numbers with large prime factors. This is why the hunt for ever bigger prime numbers is important. Prime numbers are used in on-line purchases. Credit card numbers are encoded by using numbers that can only be factorised into two primes of, at least, 60 digits each.

As e-commerce has grown, so has the need for bigger primes. The latest 2^57,885,161-1 has 17,425,170 digits.There is prize money available for large primes and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) is now offering $150,000 for the first prime over 100 million digits and $250,000 for one over a billion digits. You can help the search by downloading the GIMPS software (www.mersenne.org). They will award you $3,000 for a new prime with less than 100 million digits. Happy prime hunting!

Don Hoyle

Mathematics Matters

Maths Madness in March

There’s so much happening in March there just aren't enough school days in the month to cover it all!

Here’s a selection of some of the most important and exciting events happening this month:

1st: St David’s Day
4th – 10th: Climate Week
5th: World Literacy Day (part of World Education Games)
6th: World Maths Day (part of World Education Games)
7th: World Science Day (part of World Education Games)
7th: World Book Day
8th: International Women’s Day
10th: Mother’s Day
11th: Commonwealth Day
13th: No Smoking Day
14th: Pi Day
15th: Comic Relief: Red Nose Day
15th – 24th: National Science and Engineering Week
17th: St Patrick’s Day
20th: Spring Equinox
21st: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
21st: World Poetry Day
22nd: World Water Day
23rd: Earth Hour
24th: Palm Sunday
26th – 1st April: Passover
27th: Holi
29th: Good Friday
31st: Easter Sunday & British Summer Time begins (possibly the best day in March!)

Here are just three activities to try this month.

Key Stage 1
22nd March: World Water Day
International World Water Day focuses attention on the importance of freshwater and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
– How much water do you use?
Ask the children to investigate how much water they use in a day.
Ensure they have access to the following information:

Lower Key Stage 2
23rd March: Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a worldwide event that aims to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change by encouraging homes and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour. Earth Hour 2013 will be held on Saturday 23 March between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m.
– Energy audit
Undertake an energy audit in your school.

• Ask the children to work in groups to make a list of all the different electrical appliances in the school – perhaps assigning different groups to different areas of the school. Encourage groups to collect the data in a table, detailing the type and number of each appliance.
• Provide children with the information in the table below. If there are appliances in the school that are not on the list, ask them to find out the average yearly running costs for these appliances.
• What about the cost of heating?
• Bring groups together to pool and present the results.
• Discuss the results – What conclusions can you draw? Where does most of the school’s energy consumption occur? How could the school reduce its energy consumption?

Children could undertake their own energy audit at home.

Upper Key Stage 2
14th March: Pi Day
Pi Day commemorates the mathematical constant  π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in month/day date format), since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of pi in decimal form.
– Discovering Pi
Begin by discussing the terms ‘circumference’, ‘diameter’ and ‘radius’ with the children.

Gather together a collection of at least 6 circular objects, all different sizes. For example, plates of different sizes, waste paper basket, analogue clock, geometric circular shape.
Ask the children to:

• use a tape measure to measure the diameter and circumference of each of the objects
• record their measurements
• find the average of all of the answers they have just calculated

Discuss the results with the children. Explain to the children that mathematicians have calculated that the circumference of a circle is about 3.14 or 31/7 (22/7) times the diameter and that this number is called pi (after a letter in the Greek alphabet) and it is written: π.

Find more activities related to Pi in Collins New Primary Maths – Enriching Maths Resource Pack 6

Peter Clarke
Series editor, Collins New Primary Maths

Chess … it’s not just for squares!

In today’s high-tech schools, with their Wi-Fi networks and electronic registration systems, it would be easy to dismiss the ancient art of chess as, well – just that … ancient! Admittedly, the origins of chess can be traced back at least 1500 years but this eloquent metaphor for life is certainly not, nor is ever likely to be, past its sell-by date.  In fact, in a world which can often spin hopelessly out of control at a moment’s notice, chess offers an enticing alternative – a world that can be controlled … but only if you are sufficiently adept.  Perhaps this is what accounts for chess’s enduring appeal.

Of course, thanks to the Internet, chess has evolved and now has its own high-tech platform on websites such as:

www.chess.com

On Chess.com, there are usually 10,000 or more active participants at any one time and so it is possible to play 24/7 with members from right across the globe.   As a result of the Elo rating system, you will always be matched with a suitable adversary for your ability level. Even more amazing, there is no admission fee!

Websites like Chess.com provide all the thrills and spills of many other, much more perilous web-based entertainment services.   Personally, I imagine on-line chess to be rather like on-line gambling but, unlike the latter, no matter how bruised and battered you might feel at the end of a disastrous campaign, all you have staked is your Elo, and all you have lost is your pride!

Undoubtedly, the benefits to schools are many.  Playing chess may well raise IQ scores, enhance problem solving skills, improve concentration and memory, and encourage lateral thinking. It is also a pastime which transcends the barriers of age, class, religion, nationality, language and culture.  In Armenia, chess has actually become part of the curriculum.  This small country of some three million, which has had its fair share of warfare and tragedy in recent years, now encourages its children to experience the thrill of combat without any of the carnage.

Furthermore, chess is an incredibly inexpensive activity to run.  With an enthusiastic instructor at the helm, one who is able to pass on the flame by igniting young imaginations with a true sense of the wonder of this timeless pursuit, chess club might never be the same again!


Peter Morrisson

Peter Morrisson is a teacher, author and director of animated films. He currently lectures at the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education. 

Why is learning a language important?

Recently we had the opportunity to meet Naomi who was at Collins on a work experience placement. Whilst she was here we discovered  she is passionate about languages and plans to study French and Italian at university, and so we asked her why she thought learning a language is so important...

Language is our most complex yet fundamental communication tool. It is at once a separating and unifying force; both alienating and a source of comfort and place.  Discovering a new way of speaking is possibly one of the most liberating of human achievements.

For most of my life I’ve been fascinated by languages and I’m looking forward to starting university this September to study French and Italian. Next month, though, I’m lucky enough to be going to Paris for an 8 week ‘term’ at the Sorbonne University. Having spent a year and a half out of education I can’t wait to resume my studies and where better to do so than this iconic capital?

I’ve always enjoyed the logical interplay between languages and French and English share so much common-ground. [Note George Bush’s ‘faux-pas’ (ironically) at complaining for there being “no French word for ‘entrepreneur’”] Yet, the relative failing of our language-education in this country is slightly embarrassing- as a Nation we tend to fall back on the excuse that ‘everyone else speaks English’, which may be largely the case- but finding that you can begin to understand a language in context is immensely satisfying.

The most effective way to learn and maintain a language is to completely immerse your self in it, but for many that is not a feasible option. However there are now so many great language guides out there that lend themselves to independent study. I’ve used the Collins French Verbs and Practice book which has a clear and engaging lay-out to drum in conjugations and key grammatical points, without being dull and monotonous. It provides great revision too and helps to make the grammar sections of exams a lot easier.

In preparation for A-levels my teachers suggested that we read French newspapers; highlighting and looking up unfamiliar words, which proved to be a quick and effective method for expanding vocabulary. With the Collins Robert French dictionary I found up-to-date definitions as well as a section for “language in use”, to gauge a more fluent usage of words and phrases.

New ways of speaking offer the possibility of accessing new ways of thinking too, which is surely an immensely exciting prospect with which to incite people to adopt a new language. Not to mention new scientific research which has shown how language-learning is actually beneficial to our health; it develops new neural pathways in the brain, consequently staving off the threat of dementia and Alzheimer’s! In short, we should all be avidly swatting up on our French grammar.

In an increasingly globalised world, where many ancient native languages and dialects are gradually becoming extinct, it is more important than ever that we cherish and embrace our linguistic diversity. What a dull world would it be if we all spoke in a common tongue?

Business News Quiz 15.02.2013

1. Which high-street bank has said it will cut 3,700 jobs following a strategic review, as it aims to reduce costs by £1.7bn.
Natwest ( ) Barclay’s ( ) HSBC ( ) Lloyd’s TSB ( )

2. What 2 airlines are planning to merge to form one of the world's biggest airlines, according to media and newswire sources? 
KLM & Delta ( ) Lufthansa & Qatar ( ) British Airways & Virgin Atlantic ( ) American Airlines & US Airways ( )

3. Which supermarket’s Value Spaghetti Bolognese contains 60% horsemeat, DNA tests by the retailer have found?
Tesco ( ) ASDA ( ) Waitrose ( ) Sainsbury ( )

4. The rate of UK consumer price inflation remained unchanged at what level, for the fourth consecutive month in January, official data has shown?
3.5% ( ) 2.7% ( ) 4.5% ( ) 3.7% ( )

5. Luxury smartphone maker Vertu has launched its first Android-operated handset. The Vertu Ti costs how much? And is made at the firm's headquarters in Church Crookham, Hampshire? £8,994 ( ) £16,994 ( ) £18,994 ( ) £6,994 ( )

6. Which Leeds-based high street retailer, which has around 120 stores and employs some 2,500 staff, has entered administration?
Republic ( ) ASDA ( ) ARK ( ) Northern Foods ( )

7. Which carmaker has reported a net loss of 5bn euros ($6.7bn; £4.3bn) for 2012, compared with a 588m euro profit a year earlier? 
Vauxhall ( ) Peugeot Citroen ( ) Ford ( ) BMW( )

8. Who is trialling a new TV and film streaming service called Clubcard TV. The free on-demand service will allow the supermarket's 15 million loyalty card holders to access TV shows and films online?
Staples ( ) Tesco ( ) Boots ( ) Sainsbury ( )

9. Apple’s boss has called a lawsuit brought by activist shareholder David Einhorn a "silly sideshow". But he said the board is discussing Mr Einhorn's proposal to help shareholders get a better return on their investment despite so much of the computing giant's money sitting idle in cash. Who is Apple’s boss?
Tim Ford ( ) Tim Cook ( ) Steve Jobs ( ) Steve Wozniack ( )

10. Global sales of which technology product fell in 2012 compared with the previous year, according to a report from research company Gartner? 
Computer games ( ) Tablet’s ( ) Mobile phones ( ) Laptops ( )

Answers –
1 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21423691
2–  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21454925
3 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21418342
4 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21425939
5 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21387371
6 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21431753
7 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21439941
8 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21429675
9 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21442296
10 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21441953

Donna Jestin