OUME830

You may want to use your work on the following task as part of your tutor-marked assignment (TMA).

Describe your own work on two of the mathematics tasks in Units 1, 2 and 3

an account of what you did

What is the least number of moves required for 3 males and 3 females to swap over?Record the way you explore this investigation and any moments of insight or times when you were stuck. Pay particular attention to the times when you specialise or generalise. DiscussionIt sometimes helps to look at a simpler case before working on the larger problem. In this case that would mean considering 1 male and 1 female and then 2 males and 2 females, each with one space between the males and females. Using coins or counters helps some people to get a physical feel for the problem as they move the concrete objects around. It also makes life easier when you want to look at the case of 10 males and 10 females!

As you work through Section 1 of this unit, think about your own motivation when doing the mathematical and ICT tasks. Are the things that engage or disengage you the same as, or different from, those of particular pupils you work with?

Task 4.2 Motivation

Task 4.4 Number gridLook at the grid shown in Figure 4.1.Figure 4.1 A number gridHow might you interpret the following symbolic instructions? Reveal discussionDiscussionEach arrow represents a single step in the direction it is pointing. So the example above would trace the path 74 ↓ 84 ↓ 94 → 95. Now consider the questions and tasks below.Design some other routes on a number grid that start at 74 and end at 95.Is there any possible meaning for the following? What would you expect as an answer to the following?Finally, what are the connections between the starting point of this activity and 74 + 21?Work with your class to explore some arrow stories of this kind on a number grid. Note down anything that surprises the pupils. Did any of them use negative numbers? Reveal discussion