Using ICT in mathematics case study 2 - 'Year 11's use a spreadsheet'
Headline
'My students always find it difficult to recall how to find the rule for quadratic sequences' A lesson to get children exploring quadratic sequences using a spreadsheet, in particular finding rules for the nth term.
Context
17 Higher Ability Year 11 children (set 1 of 3) in a coastal town in the south of England.
Teaching and learning objectives
The lesson focused upon producing a spreadsheet to automate the process of finding the nth term rule for any quadratic sequence.
To be able to find the nth term of a quadratic sequence – level 8, Year 9 objective for able children, GCSE higher tier.
ICT resources and context
Children had individual laptops to work with.
Children already had some understanding of how to identify a quadratic sequence. The specific ICT activity involved using a spreadsheet to find nth term rules for quadratic sequences, with the aim being for children to construct their own spreadsheet that would find the rule for any quadratic sequence.
Explanation of the lessons (including materials used)
The lesson used a spreadsheet the teacher called 'sequence analyser', which enabled children to explore quadratic sequences. There were examples (see below) and 'you try' sheets, where the children had to find the nth term by examining differences and second differences
The 'you try' examples required children to write the formulae for the differences, n2 and all other cells given the initial sequence.
Evaluation of the impact of the ICT on the learning
The use of ICT allowed instant feedback for the children, and encouraged them to refine their answers. The lesson had greater pace as a result, but the activity also allowed children to work at their own pace. The children were already familiar with spreadsheets and this activity allowed them to see a mathematical application for them.
The use of formulas in the spreadsheet removed any calculation errors and allowed children to work on the concepts.
A parallel group who were not given access to the ICT did not seem to make as much progress as the ICT enabled group.
In particular, shy girls reported some enjoyment from the lesson, particularly as using individual machines allowed them to understand at their own pace.
Opportunities for further developments
Possible further activities to 'spin off' from this lesson would be to produce random sequences, to start with just numerical sequences that children had to find rules for and to generate a family of sequences from given differences. A development with ICT could be to represent the graph of the function simultaneously.
You can download this case study and the related spreadsheet below:
