Jean Smith and Raj Kumar joined the our regional Teacher Network meeting on Monday 21 June 2021 to help teachers trace the topic of quadratics from its beginnings in KS3 through to A level Mathematics.
Jean and Raj demonstrated a range of manipulatives and visual representations to help students to develop strong foundational understanding. Teachers had the opportunity to discuss their own approaches to factorising and completing the square, and the pros and cons of alternative formulations. We were reminded that visual representations continue to be important at KS5, where diagrams can help to overcome misconceptions and graphs can illustrate key features. Finally, the presenters introduced a number of extension ideas which would provide a challenge for even the most able Year 12 students.
Here’s an example of using algebra tiles when expanding double brackets:
If you have ideas for topics that you’d like to see explored in future Teacher Network meetings, please contact your local Area Coordinator.