Coffee and Pi (Oxfordshire Teacher Network)

Overview

Coffee and Pi is a network meeting for teachers in Oxfordshire secondary schools as part of the Oxfordshire Mathematics Community. A post-16 group, funded by AMSP, meets half-termly, allowing teachers of Core Maths and of A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics to meet, collaborate and to share best practice. The programme is planned in response to teacher requests and is a mixture of presentations and discussions. Additionally, an 11-16 group meets half-termly.

Content

This is for teachers who want their delivery of statistics to be real and exciting, with materials that have been road-tested.

We will be joined by Valerija Peles, who will introduce Large Data Sets, and Jess Barnecutt and Josh from Oaklands School in London, who will share a four-lesson unit of work they have developed to get students to use a real data set from one of Europe’s largest academic research projects, along with a powerful visual story.  This has helped their pupils critically engage with the realities of migration - through maths.  The unit provides KS3/4 students with an opportunity to:

• Apply statistics to authentic data and develop a stronger conceptual understanding
• Explore a big data set, hugely beneficial in preparing students for A Level mathematics
• Think critically about migration
• Make links across the curriculum - with links to art, English, drama, and ICT
• Use data to support an argument and experiment with novel ways to present data
• As always please encourage colleagues in your school and others to join. This session is particularly useful for KS3 and 4 teachers as well as those teaching the large data set. 

The Maths of Migration is a project that would lend itself to a home learning project and would be especially useful for year 11 students in their transition to AS/A Level maths.

There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions about how the project has worked in a London School and to engage with the data. 

Please note that priority will be given to teachers from state schools in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Applications from other schools are welcome, and places will be allocated if available.

Materials and Equipment

You will need a computer with Microsoft Excel.

The AMSP uses Big Blue Button (BBB), which is an online conferencing system that allows participants to collaborate in real time.

You are advised to use a headset or headphones with an inline microphone to provide the best sound quality and to prevent audio issues for other users. A laptop with a built-in webcam and microphone may be sufficient if you’re in a quiet area but please take the time to check this before the session. BBB is designed to be used on a variety of platforms but you will get the best experience via a desktop or laptop computer, running either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as the browser.

Note: Internet Explorer and Edge are not suitable currently.