Thinking resources

Students colour and cut out 4 shapes and fit them together to make tessellating patterns.

Students compare different types of quadrilateral shapes and answer questions about which of a pair is a special case of the other one.

Students sort different shapes into tessellating and not tessellating categories and explain their reasoning.

For this practical task students follow a plan to determine the best temperature for the reaction of rennet with milk. Students need to make observations and write a report on their findings.

Task: Students decide what sort of animals two skulls belong to. A self-assessment checklist is included. Assessment focus: using evidence to identify carnivores and herbivores.

Task: Look for the similarities and differences in leaf patterns to answer questions about observations and evidence.

Task: Look for similarities and differences in fruit to answer questions about observation and evidence.

Students look closely at a photograph taken on the beach and record their observations. They think and write about the consequences of the things they see.

Students combine their observations with some information provided to complete a story about what might have happened in the photograph.

In this activity students progressively build up evidence for and against a new idea in pest control: using bumblebees to transmit a fungicide. Students practise argumentation skills and reflect on how they formulate opinions on environmental issues.

Students are required to compare sales represented on line graphs of the total sales and the pattern of sales over time.

Students are required to explain the misleading aspects of two graphs found in newspaper articles.

Students enlarge a shape made of cubes and explore the relationship between the scale factor and volume.

Students write algebraic expressions which make equations true.

This practical task requires students to collect group/class data on students opinions on desk tidiness, present their data in a 2 × 2 array and make a statement based on their findings.

Students display data on a back-to-back stem-and-leaf graph to show the times taken to complete two walks. The longer of the two walks is then identified.

Students conduct a practical, statistical investigation. They decide on a question, categories, conduct the survey, tally and graph the results on a bar graph.

Students construct a back-to-back stem-and-leaf graph for heights of students. They then answer a question on range and make a statement comparing the heights of males and females.

Students interpret a back-to-back bar graph about apples picked by comparing and identifying patterns.

Students plan how to do a statistical investigation about a question that has been posed, and think about how they will collect their data.

Students interpret a train timetable and answer questions about departure and arrival, and journey times.

Students explain who is most likely to win a game based on spinners, and how the game could be made fair.

Students state what things will affect how far a cube will travel when flicked in the middle with a ball-point pen, and conduct an experiment to see what happens in practice.

Task: Sort cards to identify how four items of rubbish will impact on the beach, plants and animals that are found there, and humans. They then select items to remove and leave, and justify their decisions. Assessment focus: impact of materials on the environment.

Students conduct a statistical investigation about their prediction of the most common words used in English. They make graphs, describe their shape, and compare their own graph with ones that other students produce.