Modelling & simulation: tasks

Starters / Plenaries

3-2-1

Display this on the whiteboard as students are walking through the door. They can work individually or in pairs to come up with the answers.

Good for differentiation as all students should be able to get at least one of the six points.

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10 questions

A volunteer (either a student or class teacher) is given a slip of paper so they know 'what they are'.

The rest of the class can ask up to a maximum of 10 questions to guess what they are. The volunteer can only answer 'yes' or 'no'

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task

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Consider all reasons - starter

Students are given an open ended statement related to the topic.  In pairs, they identify as many reasons as possible in order to provide an answer to the statement

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30 seconds - starter

Students are shown a number of terms for exactly 30 seconds. They need to memorise as many as possible. After 30 seconds, the terms are hidden and they need to write down as many terms as they can remember along with at least one fact about that term.

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Back to Front

Students are given a piece of text related to the topic.  The only problem is that the text has been written back-to-front and upside-down. 

Starting from the bottom left-hand corner they need to write down the correct version of the text.

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task

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answer

Teach me about

Students become the teacher! One student is tasked with preparing a five minute revision starter about this topic for the beginning of the following lesson.

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Teacher Talkabout

The class 'test' the teacher on their knowledge of key words related to this topic

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Lesson tasks and homework

Practical Tasks

Practical task - downloads

A task which asks students to predict what they think will happen to variables in a spreadsheet when they make changes. They then use the spreadsheet to make those changes and check the accuracy of their predictions.

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task

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downloads.xls

Practical task - concert tour

Using a simple model

 

 

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task

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answer sheet

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shades concert tour.xls

 

Practical task - trendline

Using a trendline to predict/model future sales (subscription only)

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trendline task

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trendline answers

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trendline.xls

 

Theory Tasks

Card sorting task

This could be used as a starter/plenary activity or as a short activity during the lesson to check students' understanding of this topic.

The cards will need some preparation before the lesson. It would be better to laminate them if possible to provide a long lasting resource. However, if time is short, they can simply be printed out and cut up.

A good kinesthetic activity

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task

Fill-in-the-gaps task

Students are given a piece of text with a number of key words removed. The key words appear in a table above the text. They need to replace the words correctly back into the text.

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task

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answers

Case study - supercomputer tackles bird flu

This worksheet asks students to read a recent news article on how modelling is being used to help predict climate change in the future.

They are then asked to answer a set of questions.

 

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task

Case study - your PCs forcast climate future

This worksheet asks students to read a recent news article on how modelling is being used to help predict climate change in the future.

They are then asked to answer a set of questions.

 

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task

Research task

This worksheet asks students to research recent news stories about this topic that have been reported on in the news.

Students are asked to read at least three current news stories, answer a set of questions and then report their findings back to the class.

A useful task ensure that students gain an understanding of the use of ICT in a real life context

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task

True / false task

Students are given a list of statements related to this topic. They identify those which are true and those which are false.

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Worksheet

This task provides an attractively laid out sheet for students to store basic notes on this topic.

Students need to identify just the key points and record them in the clearly marked spaces.

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Reduce it

Students are given a section of theory. They pick out the 20 most important words. They are then asked to reduce these to the 8 they consider to be the most important.

A great task for really getting them to concentrate and think about the text in front of them.

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Create your own crossword

Students are given step by step instructions about creating their own crossword which they can then give to fellow students to solve

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task