Maths

Notes from extra maths sessions on calculus are here:

Just a note on the content of the sessions. Maths is a combination of a body of knowledge, a 'big-picture' understanding, confidence/attitude and a skill that will only develop, like any skill, with practice. I can help you with the first two but the latter will only come with an investment of time and effort. You want to become a skilled, assured driver? You take some lessons and pass a test, then don't drive for twenty years, you're not going to feel that confident about driving a minibus full of passengers into Central London. I'm sure I don't need to complete the analogy as it pertains to teaching a lesson on quantitative physics to an A level group.

___ Good News! There's a booklet from the advancing physics programme with Maths for A level physicists: Also, with kind thanks to James at the South East centre, here's something on triangular geometry: ...and more from me here: Following on from that, there's a little YouTube clip on circular geometric functions that's well worth a few minutes of your time.

Here are some other resources:

lecturers, problems, tutorials and diagnostic tools. || MathTutor ||
 * **Resource description** || **Link** ||
 * Calculations for A-level Physics - this would seem to be a good book for practice problems. || Amazon ||
 * MathTutor - 'interactive' online maths course with video lessons from startlingly unphotogenic
 * Mathletics - online diagnostic tests. Somewhat dated. Potentially useful if you want to check your own understanding. || Mathlete's foot. ||
 * Open University online Maths course - this looks pretty good. || OU Maths ||
 * Online calculus and pre-calculus course. A bit hardcore but worth a look. || Visual calculus ||
 * Basic algebra, step-by-step, and lots of it. || Algebasics ||
 * SOS Mathematics - online maths lessons, quite clear and not too pacy. || [|SOS math] ||
 * Introduction to differential calculus - good, clear prose from interactive mathematics - " where you learn by playing with it". Hmm. || [|Interactive mathematics] ||
 * Calculus.org - calculus made sexy. No, not really. It's pretty dull. What did you expect? || [|Calculus.org] ||

There is something of a dearth of accessible maths resources out there. Any submissions welcome. If you're in a second hand bookshop I'd recommend Ken Price's "Maths Skills for Advanced Scientists". They seem to be in short supply so buy a job lot if you find them; it's a good book for you and for your students. Also good and more comprehensive but also sadly out of print is the OU book "Maths for Science" by Jordan, Ross and Murphy. We have three copies of this in the SLC; we might be able to arrange short-term loans.

I hope it's alright to post here, please take it away if not, but in a Google search for the OU 'Maths for Science' book, I found a pdf of the first four chapters if anyone else is struggling to get a copy. It is here: http://www.pplato.rdg.ac.uk/resources/mfs/mathsforscience2.pdf. Hope it's helpful! Hannah :)

I went on another Maths help search this weekend and came across:

[url=]http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/keystage4.aspx?id=317[\url]

Skoool has some nice straightforward GCSE level maths tutorials that even have a little quiz to try at the end- I found this quite helpful for revising how to rearrange four term formulae and for going over trigonometry if your maths is as basic as mine is at the moment. Enjoy! Hannah

I have been going through the algebra section on mymaths [] tonight and it is really useful and marks your attempts in real time (getting big green ticks boosts your confidence no end). It also has a A level section that has logs and differentiaition too. If your school doesn't have a log in let me know and I will accidentally let slip ours. Tracey