‘Boxing Up’ The Big Launch

STEM Research suggests that our highest achieving students at both GCSE and

A Level are leaving secondary school unable to cope with the mathematical content of the STEM subjects at degree level due to:-

• Overly procedural thinking• Poor problem solving skills• Lack of confidence

Why do we need Boxing Up .....?

‘Boxing Up’ addresses this issue.

It removes the emphasis for both students and teachers from

arriving at the correct answertoan understanding of the thinking needed to

arrive at the solution.

Secondly, we discovered that our students were struggling with the wordy questions in the Functional GCSE and losing out on some of the Quality of Written Communication marks.

Boxing Up provides pupils with a strategy for solving these functional questions.

After

Chris owns a clothes shop.

He bought 50 shirts at £12 for each shirt.

He chose the selling price of each shirt so that he would make a profit of 30% on each shirt.

He sold 20 shirts at this price.

Chris then reduced the selling price of each shirt by 15%.

He then sold the remaining shirts at this reduced selling price.

Has Chris made a profit or loss?You must explain your answer clearly.

(5 Marks)

Before:

A T-Shirt cost £12 to buy. It is increased in price by 30%. How much does it cost now?

(2 marks)

Recap - Boxing Up (A Mathematical Essay)

What is the question asking me? What information do I have?

What Maths will I be using?

Working out / Calculations

Answers, checking and presentation.

Introduction

Main Story

Conclusion

Maths Story English Story

‘Boxing Up’ a pupil’s perspective....

Boxing Up is a .......

• Strategy for working out (for writing)

• Strategy for discussing (asking each other questions)

• Strategy for thinking (asking yourself questions)

‘Boxing Up’ and collaborative problem solving.....

Today’s Task

On each table there is a wordy exam problem.

You will have 5 minutes at each table to work together to solve the problem using boxing up.

Think about the problem.Pair up with the person next to you to decide what to write in each box.Share your answer with the pair opposite.

When you hear the buzzer move in a clockwise direction to the next table.

Percentages – Booking a holidayPercentages – Booking a holiday

Salima books a 7-night holiday in April for two adults.The travel agent adds a percentage surcharge to the cost of the holiday for booking fees.Salima’s final bill is £642.60What was the percentage surcharge?

Ratio & Percentages – TicketsRatio & Percentages – TicketsIn 2006, the production cost of the Newton School play was £370.

In 2007, due to the fact that the school had to hire some special costumes the production cost increased by 12%.

In 2006, the total number of tickets sold for the play was 732. They sold 1/6 more tickets in 2007

In both years the ratio of adult tickets to student tickets was 42 : 19.

In 2006, adult tickets cost £3 each and student tickets cost £1.50 each. In 2007 prices were reduced by 10%.

Work out the profit or loss made by Newton School in 2006 and 2007.

Percentages – ClothesPercentages – ClothesChris owns a clothes shop.

He bought 50 shirts at £12 for each shirt.

He chose the selling price of each shirt so that he would make a profit of 30% on each shirt.

He sold 20 shirts at this price.

Chris then reduced the selling price of each shirt by 15%.

He then sold the remaining shirts at this reduced selling price.

Has Chris made a profit or loss?You must explain your answer clearly.

Money – Gas BillMoney – Gas Bill

Mr Black is looking at cheaper ways of paying for the gas he uses.He has received the following details from two companies.

GASCOM

Standing charge per month: £1.00Cost per kWh: £2.99

UGAS

Standing charge per month: £3.78Cost per kWh: £2.38

Mr Black estimates that he will use 4000 kWh in the next 3 months.From which company would his gas bill be cheaper and by how much?

Why a ‘Big Launch?’

To raise awareness among students and teachers that this is a department wide initiative.

Organising the Launch

• All of year 11 took part in an assembly on the morning of the Launch so that we could explain the purpose and structure of the day.

• We then split the year group into two halves and held two sessions, one before break and one from break until lunch.

• For each session the year 11s were split into three groups.• The first group into the hall were trained in ‘Boxing Up.’• They then trained the second group into the hall.• Both these groups then trained the last group into the hall.

Who was Involved....

• All of the year 11s.• All of the Maths teachers.• Any TA and 1-1 mentors involved with supporting students in

Maths’• The SMT team.• The Directors of Learning for each House.

What happened...•As each group came into the hall they were given an explanation and an example of how to Box Up.

•They were then given three sets of questions of varying levels of difficulty and chose which ones to work on.

•They then solved these problems using ‘Boxing Up’ and then explained the method to the next set of students.

Two websites sell the same type of radio.

Sunil is going to buy the radio from one of the websites. He also has to pay for postage. Which website is cheaper and by how much.

People pay to visit a garden.

145 People pay.39 of them are under 16.How much ticket money is paid altogether.

The shaded rug is twice as long as it is wide.The perimeter of the rectangle is 30cm

What is the area of the rectangle?

The price of a coat is £65

In a sale the price is reduced by 15%

What is the sale price of the coat?

Every day a machine makes 500 drawing pins and puts them into boxes. The machine needs 15 drawing pins to fill a box.How many boxes can be filled with the 500 drawing pins?

A special pack of apricots has 50% extra free. Fill in the missing number on the table.

Website A

Website B

Cost of radio

£79.99 £76.76

Cost of Postage

£3.49 £6.79

Tickets:Age 16 and over £3.60Under 16 £2.25

Weight Number of apricots

Ordinary pack 450g 10

Special Pack ........g 15

Which is the best value for money500g of sausages for £2.75 or 650g of the same type of sausage for £3.70?You must show all your working.

The diagrams below show a rectangle and a parallelogram.

Kylie uses a piece of string to measure the perimeter of a shape. The string fits exactly round a rectangle 10cm by 8cm. She then fits it exactly round a square. How long is one side of the square?

Sara had £50 to spend on a day trip to France.The exchange rate was ε 1.55 = £1How many Euros did she get in exchange for her £50?She saw a watch she liked priced at ε43. How much was the watch to the nearest penny?

6.1cm

3.7cm

6.1cm

3.7cm

Calculate the area of the rectangle. Explain why the area of the parallelogram is equal to the area of the rectangle.

A shopkeeper uses this formula to calculate the total cost when customers pay by monthly instalments.C = d + 24 × m

C is the total cost in pounds. d is the deposit in pounds.m is the monthly instalment in pounds.

(a) The deposit for a wardrobe is £16. The monthly payments are £10. What is the total cost?

The value of a vintage car rises from £36 000 to £63 000.Work out the percentage increase in the price of the car.

Mutasem wants to buy two of these luxury chairs.At which shop is the price of the two chairs the cheapest?You must show your working.

Martha books a 14-night holiday in May. She books for herself, husband Billy and daughter Mary (aged 11). She books the holiday online. Explain clearly why the total cost will be £990.

We have some examples of how pupils’ boxed up these questions.

What happened next .........All Maths teacher are encourage pupils to use

‘Boxing Up’ at every opportunity.The four questions were made into A2 posters

and displayed in each classroom.Maths teachers use the posters and question

cards to remind students that they are only allowed to ask for help using one of the four questions.

Next Steps at PACA

‘Boxing Up’ is an initiative that other departments are planning to adopt, it is intended that the method will soon become a whole school approach to problem solving.

In your groups disucuss.....

What are your experiences with ‘Boxing Up’ in your school and what might your next steps be?

"Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right

answers."--Josef Albers

What is the question asking me?What information do I already have?

What maths will I be using?

What calculations / working out do I need to do?

How can I check my answer is correct?

‘Learning is making sense, not just remembering’

Geoff Petty Author of Evidence-Based Teaching