Maths: Careers In the Curriculum
Maths
At the start of every Year 7, 8 and 9 lesson a ‘Real Life Context Question’ is presented relating to the topic about to be introduced. This allows students to make real life applications and connections in order to facilitate the idea that Mathematics is not an isolated subject and is a part of everything we do in society and careers. An example of real life context questions for an introduction to ‘Negative Numbers’ for year 7 in module 2 can be found below:
For the above example, students came up with statements such as, “We may need to count below zero in order to understand our bank accounts / help bank managers to monitor client accounts.” A common theme that generated from this discussion was the need for negative numbers to help Meteorologists to tell temperature and to navigate with coordinates. The above example illustrates that when students are allowed to explore Mathematics in reality, it gives them an opportunity to better engage and have fun with their learning.
Linking content to careers
During the start of each new topic, students are introduced to a topic relevant video that shows how many different professions that topic can be applied to.
Year 10
Careers that use Quadratic Equations
Careers that use Simultaneous Equations
Careers that use Calculation of Speed
Year 11
Careers that use transformations of graphs
Careers that use Powers and Roots
During our Year 10 and 11 lessons we introduce a topic by also having a discussion on to what professions the topic is used, for example:
LInks with the University of Greenwich
Sixth Form students are completing university lectures and programmes from the University of Greenwich to develop their understanding of the A-level Advanced Mathematics courses. Also on top of that we use the modelling of topics with real life situations on every topic we teach in the A level Maths. Here is an example of parametric equation linked with real life situation of a plane journey and talking about the motion of the plane vertically and horizontally.
