DIY+e-Resources

**DIY e-Resources**

Presented by Catherine and Peter Clerks

Excel is a powerful package which can be readily programmed to create electronic resources. In the first session (Thursday) we will go through how excel can be used to create infinite random worksheets and resources for Primary School mathematics. The second session (Friday) we will look at creating programs for the Secondary mathematics classroom. In all sessions we will learn the basics to get you started, then let you use your own creativity to generate your own masterpieces.

Greedy Pig is an example of a simple class activity that can generated using Excel. The game gets students to stand up. The rolling of 2 dice are simulated using a random number generating on an Excel spreadsheet. The student's score increases by the sum of the 2 dice. Students can sit down and "bank" their score at any point. If the dice roll a double then all students still standing have their score reduced to zero. Their are 3 rounds (the "P" round, the "I" round an the "G" round) and scores are accumulated.

Crocodile Rock is a kinetic learning activity that helps kids become familiar with ordering numbers using less than and greater than signs. Students stand and use their arms to "make" the appropriate sign given two numbers that are randomly generated in real time on an excel spreadsheet that the teacher projects to the class 

Kung Fu Fighting is a similar activity to Crocodile Rock using positive and negative numbers. 

Quadratic Waltz is a kinetic activity that involves students physically representing transformations of quadratic functions.

Factorise is an activity that allows students to practice the factor/addition link that students require in order to factories simple quadratic trinomials.