Year 7 at Wallasey School on the Wirral take a Mathematical Passage to India
Wallasey School is a Creative Partnerships Change School on the Wirral with 1,100 students aged 11-18. Working with the government’s flagship creative learning programme, Creative Partnerships, Wallasey School has been investigating creative approaches to teaching and learning with a focus on thematic delivery of the curriculum. In light of this, the school decided to inject some creativity into maths by launching a new maths project across the whole of Year 7 focussing on enterprise and business.
The Creative Partnerships student panel felt that the maths project should link to the school’s annual cross-curricular Culture Week. The pupils decided that they wanted to have a themed day for maths based on ‘A Passage to India’ – the theme for Culture Week 2009. Wallasey School worked with their Creative Partnerships Creative Agent Tracey Carmen with help from Mark Jones, a mathematician with skills relating maths to music and art.
All year 7 pupils took part in the themed maths day leading up to Culture Week and were able to choose from three different working groups – The Entrepreneurs Group, The Indian Craft Group and The Backpackers Group.
The Entrepreneurs Group had to come up with a marketable product based on the ‘Passage to India’ theme. The pupils decided on marketing a DVD by working together and using their maths skills. Eleanor, a pupil in the Entrepreneurs Group, commented: “We came up with ideas around the cost of a DVD which would show interviews, practical sessions and the evening performance in Culture Week. We then worked out how to market it and came up with a design for the DVD cover.” The pupils created a full marketing plan to maximise sales of the DVD, including financial projections of how much it will cost to make and duplicate and potential profits to be made after manufacturing and marketing costs.
The Indian Craft Group created Indian style patterns including using compasses to create geometrical designs and tessellations which were transferred onto t-shirts and cards which could be used to create sellable gifts. Meanwhile, the Backpacker Group studied the journey from India to England and then re-enacted the journey on a local street, Leasowe Road.
Stephen from the Backpacker Group, explains: “I took park in ‘The Walk’… of course we included the Channel Tunnel as part of our imaginary route. We created a chain of paper dolls to represent children and adults holding hands to form a chain from England to India. This involved measurement, scale and algebraic formulae for sequences. Oh, and of course, folding, drawing and cutting out the characters.”
He continues, “When we set off on the walk, we were equipped with trundle wheels, walkie talkies and video cameras. We used these to check and record distances and to film mathematical shapes, properties and symbols. One lady was a bit confused when we explained that we were just filming her trapezium, which was a rubbish skip outside her house!”
Following the walk, the pupils investigated measures such as walking speed, volumes of water needed for the walk as well as overall costings. They then analysed the statistics from the journey and illustrated these using a series of graphs.
The pupils went on to display their findings throughout Culture Week and recorded their DVD and edited it with the help of Creative Practitioner Marty Foster. The DVD will now go on sale to parents.
Fran Parsonage, Assistant Head and Change School Co-ordinator at Wallasey School, said: “This Creative Partnerships project produced some really positive results. Our evaluation showed that pupils had really engaged with the activities planned by the maths faculty and we now want to further develop student voice in planning and development. Creative Partnerships has also had an effect on staff’s willingness and ability to take risks. This has led to more innovative planning, including teachers designing curriculum materials for maths which help pupils develop wider skillsets and more co-construction of learning with students taking place.”
Wallasey School will be continuing to develop the thematic maths day with the new intake of Year 7 pupils.
