Circle Theorems & Hula Hoops!!

Inspired by @MrReddyMaths' guest blog post by @adrianjohnst on his blog my Y10 class have been creating Circle Theorems using Hula Hoops bought at 'Pound World' today!!

To see Adrian's blog post click http://mrreddy.com/blog/2012/12/guest-blog-circle-theorems-and-hula-hoops/

To visit the 'Pound World' website go to http://poundworld.net/. This lesson/blog post is part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy.

This was our 1st lesson back after the Easter holidays and with a few personnel changes to the set due to recent mock results I felt it would be a good idea to revise over a few topics this week to get the class back into the swing of things and to provide links to the topics in the Unit 2 paper that we still need to cover. Another reason for looking at Circle Theorems again is because I didn't feel the class learnt enough when we covered them the first time round, the lesson, for whatever reason, didn't seem to sink in and so we needed to do more work here - the question/s that have come up in mock papers the class have done weren't fantastically well answered, as a whole group.

So, I started the lesson by using my Mathematics 4 pics 1 word Circle Theorems resource - see my previous blog post http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/mathematics-4-pics-1-word-circle.html (there's a link in this post to my resource on the TES available for download). I then, using the words in the starter activity went over the circle theorems on the board. I also had, on the tables prior to the class coming in, a sheet of QR Codes that linked to my Circle Theorem videos on my YouTube Channel (mrcollinsmaths). The idea then was for the class to use the videos and the notes I had written on the board to recreate one of the Circle Theorems. I asked groups to volunteer for a particular circle theorem at this point and this created a bit of competition with certain groups wanting to do certain Theorems over others. Once the groups had their circle theorems assigned I showed them (in the style of 'Blue Peter') one I had made early to model what it was I was expecting. Having thought about it now, I should have shown them Mr Reddy's blog post (darn hindsight)!

So, here's one I made earlier...

I used a few of my other purchases at 'Pound World' including the 'Memo Cube' 'post-its' (however these aren't sticky) and the masking tape to secure the rods.

The rods I got from our awesome D&T department. I luckily caught one of the NQT teachers in the car park and told him what I was planning to do - we then went to the D&T workshops and sliced up some wooden rods they had lying around so I could use these as the tangents, chords, radii, diameters etc! These were a great help and it pays to know all the departments in your school - you never know when you're going to need to call on them for help!

This 'model' then gave the class the basis of what I was looking for. After a short health and safety warning about splinters I gave the groups their hula hoop, wooden rods and sellotape/masking tape etc. At this point I had quite a few of our faculty in the room as I had invited them in if they were free to see what we were doing (and give me a hand). A few of them went and found us some extra sellotape as the masking tape wasn't great for holding the parts in place. Nonetheless, look what the class created...

 Angles drawn from the same point

 Angles drawn from the same chord

Angle in a semi-circle (angle at the circumference is half the angle at the centre)

 Cyclic Quadrilateral (opposite angles = 180 degrees)

Angle at the circumference is half the angle at the centre











After the class had been given 15-20 minutes to complete their circle theorem hula hoops I asked one representative from each group to explain to the rest of the class what circle theorem they had done, explain the relative parts of each etc. I then collected them all in and handed out to the class a set of circle theorem past paper questions from the 'bland.in' website. The class then used my YouTube video and all the Theorems (now on the floor of the wall at the front of the class) to answer the questions. I was particularly impressed at this point that some of the class had got our previous lessons notes out of their exercise books to refer to too!

Here's all of them at the front of the class & the QR Codes sheet and questions I gave the class...

 All of them, at the front as a reference - I just need to 'hang'/ put these up on one of the walls in the room for future use!

Here's the QR Code sheet I made the class. The centre QR Code links to the playlist on my YouTube Channel with all the explanations and some past paper question solutions. The 6 QR Codes round the centre one link to a specific theorem.







I (and I hope the class) really enjoyed this lesson. I feel they were much more secure with their knowledge of circle theorems at the end of the lesson having gone over the answers to the questions in the 'plenary'.
I know need some more Hula Hoops to do a session on Venn Diagrams (as suggested by a few of my Twitter followers following my #poundlandpedagogy tweets)!

My QR Code Cube!!

When trying to think of ways I could implement QR Codes into my lessons I thought of an idea to have a QR Code Cube! A Cube which, on each of its' 6 faces, would have a different QR Code that would link to either a different resource/task/website etc.

Originally I wanted to create a Lego QR Code Cube like I did with my Lego QR Code that I previously blogged about http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-lego-qr-code.html. However, I couldn't think of a way to actually create this where the cube would be able to be rolled and stay in tact (as durable as Lego is I doubt it'd withstand being chucked around my room all year).

So, having gone back to the drawing board, and with a lot of help from Miss Moore** (who's currently about to start her teacher training in D&T, has a degree in graphic and digital design and is generally very arty) I (she) came up with the following*...

 

How amazing is it!! :)

 

How I plan to use it is as follows, at the start of some of my lessons, perhaps one a week (I'll call it something like 'random wednesdays') I'll get a student to roll the QR Code Cube and they will then generate a starter activity for the class to do - whichever face the cube lands on will be the QR Code the student then scans [using my iPhone if they don't have a smart phone with a QR Code scanner on it].

 

Each of the 6 codes I have created (using http://www.qrstuff.com/) link to a simple plain text when scanned that tells the student what the starter will be. The choices are:

Maths DJing

Chris Moyles' Quiz Night Video

Times Tables

Numbercrunch

Pair Off Quiz

Random Name Generator Choice

 

The Maths DJing will be one of my Maths DJing clips where students listen to the clip and then work out the sum of the numbers mentioned in the lyrics of the songs that I have mixed together.

 

The Chris Moyles' Quiz Night Video will be one of the Maths Clips from the shows that were on channel 4.

 

The times tables will be a simple 10-20 questions from the times tables up to 20 x 20.

 

The numbercrunch will be a long sum to calculate like you get in the daily newspapers i.e. 7 + 4 x 3 -13 + 28 / 2 etc etc.

 

The pair off quiz will involve me getting the class into pairs and then using the IWB double buzzer tool I found and blogged about previously will ask them questions (in their pairs one at a time) based on the previous lesson or topic we are about to study.

 

The random name generator choice will involve me putting up the random name generator for that class and then the person it stops on will get to choose what starter we do, whether it be one of the choice above, or something else we have done in class that the student liked/likes.

 

Hopefully this will engage my learners, keep them on their toes, give them some say into the content of their lessons etc. I will also have my Lego QR Code in my classroom, which links to my YouTube channel and I'm hoping this will encourage them to visit the channel and watch the videos on their to help them with their revision.

 

The good thing about the cube is that now it has been made (thank you Miss Moore) I can easily change the QR Codes as I see fit. If anyone else has any ideas as how I could use this I'd love to hear from you (@mrprcollins) or leave a comment below :)

 

*The cube was made my layering foam board, making it soft enough to not dent the floor of my classroom and durable enough to last being thrown around the room. It was then covered in newspaper paper mache style and then covered with the codes/white paper/cuttings from leftover coloured paper.

 

**I am encouraging Miss Moore to get on Twitter ASAP to share her ideas etc throughout her PGCE year, I will provide her @ on here if/when she sets her account up :)



My Lego QR Code!!

A couple of months ago I saw an image of a QR Code made out of Lego!

So, I got some Lego and raided my mum's childminding boxes (all of which are toys that used to be mine, including all of my old Lego!!) to create my very own Lego QR Code.

The brilliance about it is that it scans just like a normal QR Code on a poster/paper!
I intend to have this up in my classroom next year. It is the QR Code for my mrcollinsmaths YouTube Channel.