50 Mathematics Lessons: Rich and Engaging Ideas for Secondary Mathematics

(Paperback)

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'This is an excellent book which no mathematics department should be without. Its 50 self-contained lessons offer amusing, fascinating and mathematically worthwhile tasks which are supported by excellent teacher notes. Most books are not worth recommending but this is different.'
Paul Andrews, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education, Universityof Cambridge

This collection is a must have' for every teacher who wants to inspire students to be excited by mathematics, yet not stray too far from core topics. Every lesson contains key insights into mathematics, using ideas, links and contexts which are mysterious, fun, silly, bizarre, practical and historical.'
Anne Watson, Reader in Mathematics Education, University of Oxford

When the occasion demands it, most maths teachers can pull out an all-singing-all-dancing lesson or two that are more or less guaranteed to go well. These can come in handy for job interviews or during inspections. But such lessons tend to require an exceptional amount of preparation or are excessively demanding to deliver and are not sustainable in the real world, where a teacher may have to teach eight or more lessons in a day. For most of us, normal teaching life probably exists nearer the other end of the maths lesson spectrum, with relatively routine expository lessons. This sort of lesson requires little preparation and is easy to teach, but tends to be uninspiring for learners and unsatisfying for the teacher.The fifty lessons in this book aim somewhere in between these two extremes: they require only a few minutes' preparation time yet, I hope, rise above the commonplace. They are the sort of lessons you could teach eight of in a day, rather than eight of in your career!'
From the introduction

Related resources can be found at the companion website www.50maths.com.

Reviews

This is an excellent book which no mathematics department should be without. Its 50 self-contained lessons offer amusing, fascinating and mathematically worthwhile tasks which are supported by excellent teacher notes. Most books are not worth recommending but this is different. -- Paul Andrews, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education, University of Cambridge
This collection is a "must have" for every teacher who wants to inspire students to be excited by mathematics, yet not stray too far from core topics. Every lesson contains key insights into mathematics, using ideas, links and contexts which are mysterious, fun, silly, bizarre, practical and historical. -- Anne Watson, Reader in Mathematics Education, University of Oxford
"Good tasks develop a life of their own and shown be readily extendible for learners who need further challenges." The author writes this in his introduction and has produced a set of very good tasks indeed. The tasks take about a side, perhaps two, of A4 to explain and are very easy to understand yet offering a rich task for students to work on...Each task has a summary box explaining the related topics - making it easy to find one for the current topic of study - and the materials needed - essential for preventing disaster as the lesson unfolds...This is a great resource for a department office and for ideas to be shared in advance of the next topic. -- Peter Hall

Author Bio

Colin Foster teaches mathematics at a secondary school in Coventry, UK.