Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Assessment 3: Maths Trail.

Alternative approaches to the teaching and learning of mathematics.

When creating lessons for mathematics there are some very important things we as educators
should keep in mind. We should keep our lessons authentic and creative to maintain engagement
and enthusiasm from our students. We can do this by using a few different approaches and activities
that vary from one another. Puzzles, games and investigations are a good basis of creating interest in
mathematics. Stepping away from the old school method of teaching mathematics by writing
examples on the board and explaining them, followed by set questions that the students work from
out of their books. This is boring, repetitive and an easy way out for lazy teachers who are stuck in
their classic routine of teaching their lessons. We can fix this by creating group activities that are
hands on, and use practical applications to teach mathematical concepts.

Online interactive websites are extremely useful for a different learning experience. Websites such
as http://www.mathsframe.co.uk/ are great to give the students a different experience that gives
them the control over their own learning. There are a variety of other similar websites that cater for
all different levels of children. It is also great as programs such as these give children an engaging
activity that they can even do at home for fun or with the family as there are an abundance of
questions in all different categories. Math stories are also a great activity for younger students who
can work through a story and answer questions about it. Spaghetti and meatballs for all. A
mathematical story is a great way to show how mathematics can be applied in real life situations. I
also believe that websites such as Mathisfun is great in creating interesting and exciting lessons
with activities and puzzles. Using activities such as the ones mentioned are great at targeting the
lower levels. As students progress higher and higher the activities become more difficult to
construct hence why teachers can fall into this chalk, talk fashion of teaching. Saying this, a great
method that we have looked a lot into is a math trail.

Unlike some activities, math trails can be tailored to almost any year level, given enough thought
and creativity. A math trail includes a serious of mathematical activities and questions based around
different components of the school. There are many pre-existing examples and trails that have been
formed around some major landmarks especially in England. Math trails are becoming more and
more popular as a means of engaging lessons and can be created to cover a variety of topics, or to
cover just one in detail similar to mine, explained in detail below.






Dylan Haeusler: 3880530


The Trail:
The school I am based in for my Secondary school placement is Seymour Secondary College. I have chosen year
10 to base my maths trail on as I feel that a Maths Trail is something that I want to try and apply differently to
create some excitement and enjoyment out of activities that otherwise could seem dull and repetitive.
However, I feel that a maths trail applied correctly can be more beneficial for lower years such as primary or
year 7 and 8, as I feel that the activities can be more specific and relate well with younger students. Saying this,
I feel that the year 10s can get so much out of this considering that, as their work gets harder and more
challenging to understand, I wanted to show them exactly how it can/will be applied in real life. This will
hopefully encourage students to continue pursuing maths in later years and creating engagement/enjoyment
throughout my classes. Here are the AusVELS guidelines that I am going to cover while creating and conducting
my maths trail.

AusVELS: Level 10:
Measurement and Geometry
Students solve and explain surface area and volume problems relating to composite solids. They use parallel
and perpendicular lines, angle and triangle properties, similarity, trigonometry and congruence to solve
practical problems and develop proofs involving lengths, angles and areas in plane shapes. They use digital
technology to construct and manipulate geometric shapes and objects, and explore symmetry and pattern in
two dimensions. (AusVELS 2012)

When creating my maths trail I looked into the AusVELS levels to make sure that I am creating my maths trail
at the appropriate level addressing the correct material. It is going to be planned for a double lesson of 100
minutes to get the students moving around the school to follow the instructions. This set of instructions is
going to be a guide line of the questions I would use, the misconceptions and the benefits to the specific
activities. Written in blue are also the teacher answers and guidelines to the types of thought processs the
students should be using. The maths trail is going to begin in our classroom (room 33) and venture around the
school till we finish in the library. I have added in a range of questions varying in difficulty to be able to
accommodate for all of my pupils. These questions can be modified depending on the needs of the class but
aim to work on the understanding of perimeter, area, volume, estimation and some more complex ideas.
Some of these questions have also been created to challenge the students and get them thinking a little bit
above their level to create a challenging and engaging activity.







Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 1: Classroom calculations
This is the starting point to our maths trail. We are to start by asking them a variety of questions to start the
thinking process. These questions are:
- Question 1) How many different shapes can you find in the room? What are they?
Looking for shapes such as the; rectangle (table), square (table), circle (clock),

- Question 2) What would be the best unit of measurement to measure the length of the room?
Metres

- Question 3) What would be the best unit of measurement be to measure the length of your pen?
Centre metres

- Question 4) What is the area of the whiteboard?
Example: L W = 4m 1.5m = 6m

- Question 5) What is the area of your table?
Example: L W = 1.5m 0.6m = 0.9m
Or = 150 60 = 9000cm

- Question 6) What is the area of all of the tables in the classroom?
Area of one table multiplied by the total number of tables
= 0.9 13 = 11.7m
Or = 9000 13 = 117,000cm

Misconceptions: Their early misconceptions may lie with geometric shapes and the correct naming of these.
They may also struggle to use the correct unit when working out area tending to multiply different units in
order to find the area of a specific shape. (Goos, Stillman, Vale 2007) This means that they will be coming up
with incorrect answers. They also need to make sure that they are expressing their answer in the correct unit
and not forgetting to record it with the unit provided as this is a very common mistake made by adolescents.
Benefits: This section helps to start off the students thinking. It is good as it is a simple more basic section to
give the students confidence. It is great in showing the students that mathematics is all around us and to
hopefully create relatable thinking that they can see in their other classrooms. It helps to give them a chance
to work on basic area while still in a controlled setting before moving to the outdoors to do more
measurement equations.
Once we have covered these questions it is time to move to our next section of the trail, this is the basketball
courts at the end of the block of buildings. We are going to quickly walk by the car park on the way to the court
to ask these two questions:
- Question 1) If the average car is 3.5m long and there are n amount of cars in the car park, how long
would a line of all the cars be?
Car lengths = 3.5n
- Question 2) Count the amount of cars making n the value for the number. Now work out how long
would a line of all the cars be?
Car lengths = 3.5 19 = 66.5m

Now it is time to move to the basketball court where perimeter and area questions are going to be the focus.
Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 2: Court time















For this section it is going to focus on perimeter and area. It is going to be based on the basketball court
outside of the classroom.

- Question 1) Work out the perimeter of the basketball court using the appropriate measuring
equipment
2 (L + W) = 2(28m + 15m) = 2 43 = 86m

- Question 2) Using the figures you have already found calculate the entire area.
L W = 28m 15m = 420m

- Question 3) Using the figures you have already found calculate the perimeter and area of a netball
third
P = 2 (L + W) = 2 (28/3 + 15) = 2(9.33 + 15) = 2 24.33m = 48.66m
A = L W = 9.33 15 = 140m

- Question 4) Estimate the perimeter of the centre circle. Now work it out using the appropriate
formula and measurements. Was your estimation close?
Estimation = 8m, Formula = 2r = 21.8 =11.31m

- Question 5) Now work out the perimeter of the 3 point line semi-circle (in picture)
P =
1
2
2r + d =
1
2
27.5 + 15 =
1
2
15 + 15 = 7.5 + 15 = 23.56 +15 = 38.56m

- Question 6) Calculate the area of the same shape
A =
1
2
r =
1
2
7.5 = 88.36m

Misconceptions: Many misconceptions happen when students compute perimeter and area with different unit
values. They make the mistake of not converting the units all to the same one before working their equation.
Students may also be confused when going from calculating the perimeter of a circle to that of semi-circle
commonly forgetting to add in the diameter. (Goos, Stillman, Vale 2007)
Benefits: This activity helps students to work out some measurements using a few different techniques. It
helps to engage and give the students more room and hands on learning to measure and calculate perimeters
and areas. It helps to show them exactly why you need to know these sorts of techniques even when creating
sports fields.

Now that Court Time has been concluded lets move onto building F at the end of the court to make some
estimations/calculations.
Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 3: Bricka Brack





















Now that we have covered some perimeter/area questions its now time to estimate and calculate real life
objects in order to solve more complex practical questions.

- Question 1) Estimate how many bricks are in this wall. Using any technique you like work out the
amount of bricks that make up this wall.
Each row there are about 25 bricks, theres about 40 rows so that is 40 25 about 900.

- Question 2) Using that figure, estimate the total amount of bricks that make up the building taking
into account windows and others structures.
Add up approximate row and how many taking into account windows ect.

- Question 3) Now roughly estimate the entire bricks in the school
Multiply the amount you have for this one building with the amount in the school. It doesnt have to
be perfect.

- Question 4) If each brick cost $2.20, how much would the single building have costed in bricks?
Compare to your classmates figures.
Single building amount of bricks = rough estimate, lets say (4000), so 4000 2.20 = $8,800

Misconceptions: Estimating such a large number is going to be a challenging task. It will find some students not
basing their estimation off any basic evidence which can cause some problems. Students may also find the
multiplication of decimals challenging while forgetting to include the dollar sign. Students may also forget to
take into account some of the factors when calculating the amount of bricks in the wall such as vents and
doorways which make their figures smaller than first anticipated.
Benefits: The benefits to this section of the maths trail is to help us to be able to estimate within a practical
setting. It helps us to be able to relate real life situations to maths and to be able to work out an approximate
cost for these values. It helps the students to be able to calculate on a large scale taking various other factors
into account when making their predictions.
Once we have finished this section we are going to walk down the left side of the building to work out some
area/estimation problems.
Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 4: Window wizards

















Now we are going to work the area and cost of windows within our class/school. This is great in showing the
students exactly how schools and glaziers calculate the cost and amount of glass they will need.

- Question 1) Calculate the glass area of a single window in metres squared
A = L W = 1.2m 0.75m = 0.9m

- Question 2) Using that figure work out the entire area of the windows in the classroom in metres
squared
Area of one window multiplied by the total number of windows the same size
= 0.9 42 = 37.8m

- Question 3) If glass cost $54 per square metre, work out the cost of the glass in the classroom.
Compare with your classmates.
54 37.8 = $2041.2


Misconceptions: The students need to be careful to only calculate the glass and not the wooden frame. They
also need to take into account any windows that differ in size from the original ones they have
measured/calculated. Confusion may arise by not understanding how to calculate the large amount of
windows in a few simple steps. They may choose to try and work out each window separately.

Benefits: The benefits to this section are very similar to the previous section. We are also working out a large
collection of areas by measuring, calculating and multiplying with the number of windows creating a few steps
for the students to work through. This also gives students a good opportunity to understand why we have to
convert values before making any further calculations.



Now that we have worked out the costs of windows we can continue down F wing to the K wing where we
will ask this question on the way. We are heading to the water tank attached to the K wing building.

- Question 1) What shapes/ structures can you find in the school environment which has angles of 45?
The roof of the building, zig zag playground equipment, windows.
Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 5: Water Tank Toil































Misconceptions: Many misconceptions happen when students compute volume with different unit values.
They make the mistake of not converting the units all to the same one before working their equation. They
also struggle when converting cubic measurements. This can be due to poor multiplication skills and a lack of
physical and deep understanding of the topic. (Goos, Stillman, Vale 2007)


Benefits: This section really benefits students who are excelling at maths and are ready to move onto harder
and more challenging tasks. Students who dont have an extensive grip of volume can also work with other
students to help calculate and work through the problems. It is good in understanding the conversion of more
complex units when being able to see it in real life. I feel that this is great as measurement, especially volume,
is good to see in a physical and applied sense as it is a more complex topic.





The water tank problems are now complete. So lets head down to the end of K wing and see if we can spot
some interesting objects.
We have just arrived at the side of K
wing where the water tank is. These
questions are going to be some more
advanced volume questions that can be
skipped if need be. They include:

- Question 1) Estimate how
many litres would be in the
tank
5000 Litres

- Question 2) Calculate the
volume of the water tank in
litres
V = rh
=1.1 1.8
=6.22m

Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 6: Solar panel panic


















Now that we have reached the next building we can see some interesting sights. The next few questions will
be based around this.

- Question 1) What things can you see that help to electrically power the school?
Solar panels

- Question 2) How many of these can you see? What type of angle are they making with the building?
Approximately 24, acute

- Question 3) How many buildings do you think it would power?
1

- Questions 4) If each panel created 90 joules of energy each second, how much power would all of the
panels be creating each second?
90 24 = 2160 joules

- Question 5) If each panel created 90 joules of energy each second, how much power would all of the
panels be creating each minute?
2160 60 = 129,600


Misconceptions: Various misconceptions that can come with this section of the trail would relate directly to
the unit of measurement being used. Students may get confused and not know how to calculate these
problems doubting their own ability. There may also be troubles if they are trying to convert or work with this
unit. This can be fixed by a brief description of why we are using it instead of watts.

Benefits: This activity is good in getting the students ready for the use of different units. It helps to create new
thinking and to get them thinking in a new way. It will be challenging working with a unit they may not have
seen before but it is there to challenge the students.

Now that we are at the end of our trail it is time to head down the steps to the library where we will answer
our final questions.
Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

Activity 7: Library life


The final section of this lengthy math trail is going to comprise of questions based around the library. After this
the lesson should be finished and the students can head back to the classroom. The final questions will be:

- Question 1) How many books do you think are in this library?
1200 books

- Question 2) Now how many do you believe to be fiction and how many do you think are non-fiction.
Make an approximate ratio
400 non-fiction, 800 fiction = 400 : 800 = 1:2

- Question 3) Using your multiplicative skills and estimation, work out the most effective and fast way
of calculating the total amount of books in the library. Compare with your classmates
Strategies include; count how many are in one row, multiply with rows with simular thickness of
books, also work out how much area in one section, and multiply with sections.

- Question 4) Using your estimated fiction and non-fiction number of books work out the total cost if;
non-fiction books cost $10.90 and fiction cost $14.60. What is the overall total?
Non-fiction; 400 10.90 = $4,360
Fiction : 800 14.60 = $11,680
Total: 4,360 + 11680 = $16,040



Misconceptions: The problems that may arise when dealing with these questions will relate to the difference
between fiction and non-fiction and the ratio that comes with it. Some students may still be getting a grip of
ratios and not understand how to compare the two values. They may also have issues when estimating
forgetting to account for different books sizes/thickness.

Benefits: This final section helps us to estimate and calculate large values in a physical setting. This is good in
getting the students to use their knowledge of how to calculate and categorise large values in a time efficient
way. It is also relevant to their mathematical thinking and brings new thoughts to them about how much
money actually goes into a school.









That now concludes the maths trail that I have created. I have added in a lot of questions to be able to give a
variety of learning chances for the students. I feel that it can be modified to have a student try a few different
sections. It can even drop out a section such as section 3 and will still have the trail working effectively.
Dylan Haeusler: 3880530

References:
Australian curriculum assessment and reporting authority 2012, Content structure; Mathematics, ACARA
viewed 23 May 2013, <http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Mathematics/Content-structure>
AusVELS 2012, Victorian curriculum and assessment authority, viewed 23 May 2013,
<http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Print/AusVELS.pdf?d=hpe&l=10&e=1>

Goos, M Stillman, G & Vale, C 2007, Teaching Secondary School Mathematics, Allen & Unwin, Australia
Math is fun 2011, Puzzles, viewed on 23 May 2013, <http://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/index.html>
Pound, L Lee, T 2010, Teaching Mathematics Creatively, Taylor and Francis, England