Last week, there was a maths class in the library for the first time ever at my school. It was amazing. I was trying to figure out why that 'data' topic - a quarter of the course - is so damn dull. I found it dull and, as I discovered at uni, I love stats! I figured that it might be partially to do with the fact that you never get to deal with data you care about in school, so of course the results are boring. And frankly, the colours-of-cars / survey pseudo experiments that are often said to be the solution are almost worse than the textbooks in terms of providing data the kids might actually find interesting.
So, the library. Every kid got a data set that they were actually interested in - world records for the 50m front crawl, for the boy who swims for the county. CD sales per month for the girl in love with Bieber. And one kid - that one, and he's top of the class - comparing sales of cheese to GDP.
Now, every lesson they all draw a particular type of graph - Thursday was scatter graphs - using their own data, and to their own level of challenge. Pick the scales for your axes. Find equations of lines of best fit and predict more data, do some research, do other people agree with you?
It's amazing, producing nearly 100% engagement and raising interesting questions about how to present difficult data that doesn't fit neatly into categories. As a side benefit, I chummed up with the librarian. She just emailed me with a question.
The library 'maths books' budget hasn't been spent for the last 8 years. The ordering deadline for this year is a week away. Is there anything you'd like me to buy?
So, everyone, is there anything I should buy - of course there is! What?
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