This page contains ideas we discussed in an ATM London working group meeting on 4 February 2012.  We looked at fun and interesting ideas to take into the classroom.  

We are going to meet again in March 2012.  If you would like to come please contact me or , head of the ATM/MA London Branch.  Watch this space for more information.

The members of the first meeting were Susan Hendriks and Sukaina Sesay (George Green's), Jacqueline McLeod (Dagenham Park), Terry Patterson (Greycoat Hospital), Enoch Adebisi, Hip Sahota (Latymer Upper) and Steve Alcorn (Belfairs High).

Here are some of the ideas we discussed in our first meeting:

1. We played a couple of ice-breaking maths games that involved us getting tangled and untangled.  One was similar to the game planarity (but with people and ribbon), the other was a game called 'knots' from the ATM book People Maths.   
2. We discussed the idea of devoting a short period of lesson time to inquiry, allowing students to explore interesting ideas.  We agreed it might be fun to develop some ideas for this - this will be the focus of the group. 
3. We all played with twist and lock blocks and I asked the question - how could you use these in a lesson?  Our suggestions are in the slide show below (click to play).
4. We played with a Zometool kit for a while, then Terry asked "I wonder if you could make a larger version of the 'zome ball'?" This simple question lead to a team of 4 construction experts creating the model you see below!
5. Hip and Enoch played with some large pentominoes made from plastic.  They were trying to make a 6x10 rectangle from all 12, although I don't think they got there!   This book contains all you ever wanted to know about pentominoes (at a snip for £2.57 on Amazon!).  We then discussed the fact that there are amazing old books on Amazon for very low prices... I have started a list of these books here.
6. Steve decided he would make a hat out of balloons, which was quite possibly a mathematical shape...!
7. And finally, Steve showed us his Smarties algebra and received a light round of applause.

We all agreed to meet again in March.  Everyone is going to bring something interesting to show, then perhaps we will start to develop some ideas to take into the classroom!  The ideas we come up with will be put on this website. 

Most importantly, we all had some fun and possibly learnt something - a great way to spend a Saturday morning! 
[thanks to Terry for some of the photos below - click to play]