‘Boxing Up’
IMCA
@zebfriedman
"Good teaching is more a giving of
right questions than a giving of
right answers.“
Josef Albers
‘Learning is making sense, not just
remembering’
Geoff Petty
Author of Evidence-Based Teaching
Why do we need Boxing Up .....?
STEM Research suggests that our highest achieving students at
both GCSE and
A Level are leaving secondary school unable to cope with the
mathematical content of the STEM subjects at degree level due
to:• Overly procedural thinking
• Poor problem solving skills
• Lack of confidence
‘Boxing Up’ addresses this issue.
It removes the emphasis for both students and teachers from
arriving at the correct answer to an understanding of the
thinking needed to arrive at the solution.
‘Boxing Up’ addresses this issue.
Secondly, we discovered that our students
were struggling with the wordy questions
in the Functional GCSE and losing out on
some of the Quality of Written
Communication marks.
Boxing Up provides pupils with a strategy
for solving these functional questions.
Before:
A T-Shirt cost £12 to buy. It is increased in price by
30%. How much does it cost now? (2 marks)
After
Chris owns a clothes shop and he bought 50 shirts at £12 for each
shirt.
He chose the selling price of each shirt so that he would make a
profit of 30% on each shirt.
He sold 20 shirts at this price.
Chris then reduced the selling price of each shirt by 15%.
He then sold the remaining shirts at this reduced selling price.
Has Chris made a profit or loss?
You must explain your answer clearly.
(5 Marks)
Recap - Boxing Up (IMCA)
Maths Story
English Story
What is the question asking
me? What information do I
have?
Introduction
What Maths will I be using?
Working out / Calculations
Answers, checking and
presentation.
Main
Story
Conclusion
A recipe for 12 people uses 500g of plain flour.
How much flour is needed for 18 people?
Green Box - What is the question asking me?
What information do I have?
How much flour is needed for 18 people?
12 people use 500g of plain flour.
A recipe for 12 people uses 500g of plain flour.
How much flour is needed for 18 people?
Blue Box - What maths will I be using?
Ratio / Proportion
Halving
Adding
A recipe for 12 people uses 500g of plain flour.
How much flour is needed for 18 people?
Red Box – Working out and calculations
12 people = 500g
6 people = 250g
3 people = 125g
12 + 6 = 18 people
500 + 250 = 750g
A recipe for 12 people uses 500g of plain flour.
How much flour is needed for 18 people?
Yellow Box – Working out and answers
6 people = 250g
6 x 3 = 18
250 x 3 = 750
IMCA is a .......
• Strategy for working out
(for writing)
• Strategy for discussing
(asking each other questions)
• Strategy for thinking
(asking yourself questions)
Today’s Task
On each table there is a wordy exam problem.
You will have 5 minutes at each table to work
together to solve the problem using boxing up.
Think about the problem.
Pair up with the person next to you to decide what
to write in each box.
Share your answer with the pair opposite.
When you hear the buzzer move in a clockwise
direction to the next table.
Percentages – Booking a holiday
Salima books a 7-night holiday in April for two adults.
The travel agent adds a percentage surcharge to the cost of the
holiday for booking fees.
Salima’s final bill is £642.60
What was the percentage surcharge?
Ratio & Percentages – Tickets
In 2006, the production cost of the Newton School play was £370.
In 2007, due to the fact that the school had to hire some special costumes the
production cost increased by 12%.
In 2006, the total number of tickets sold for the play was 732. They sold 1/6 more
tickets in 2007
In both years the ratio of adult tickets to student tickets was 42 : 19.
In 2006, adult tickets cost £3 each and student tickets cost £1.50 each. In 2007
prices were reduced by 10%.
Work out the profit or loss made by Newton School in 2006 and 2007.
Percentages – Clothes
Chris owns a clothes shop.
He bought 50 shirts at £12 for each shirt.
He chose the selling price of each shirt so that he would make
a profit of 30% on each shirt.
He sold 20 shirts at this price.
Chris then reduced the selling price of each shirt by 15%.
He then sold the remaining shirts at this reduced selling price.
Has Chris made a profit or loss?
You must explain your answer clearly.
Money – Gas Bill
Mr Black is looking at cheaper ways of paying for the gas he uses.
He has received the following details from two companies.
GASCOM
Standing charge per month: £1.00
Cost per kWh: £2.99
UGAS
Standing charge per month: £3.78
Cost per kWh: £2.38
Mr Black estimates that he will use 4000 kWh in the next 3 months.
From which company would his gas bill be cheaper and by how much?
Two websites sell the same type of radio.
Website A
Website B
Cost of radio
£79.99
£76.76
Cost of Postage
£3.49
£6.79
People pay to visit a garden.
Tickets:
Age 16 and over £3.60
Under 16 £2.25
Sunil is going to buy the radio from one of the
websites. He also has to pay for postage. Which
website is cheaper and by how much.
145 People pay.
39 of them are under 16.
How much ticket money is paid altogether.
The shaded rug is twice as long as it is wide.
The perimeter of the rectangle is 30cm
The price of a coat is £65
In a sale the price is reduced by 15%
What is the sale price of the coat?
What is the area of the rectangle?
Every day a machine makes 500 drawing pins and
puts them into boxes.
The machine needs 15 drawing pins to fill a box.
How many boxes can be filled with the 500
drawing pins?
A special pack of apricots has 50% extra free. Fill
in the missing number on the table.
Weight
Number of apricots
Ordinary pack
450g
10
Special Pack
........g
15
Which is the best value for money
500g of sausages for £2.75 or 650g
of the same type of sausage for
£3.70?
You must show all your working.
The diagrams below show a rectangle
and a parallelogram.
3.7cm
6.1cm
3.7cm
6.1cm
Calculate the area of the rectangle.
Explain why the area of the
parallelogram is equal to the area of
the rectangle.
Kylie uses a piece of string to
measure the perimeter of a shape.
The string fits exactly round a
rectangle 10cm by 8cm. She then
fits it exactly round a square. How
long is one side of the square?
Sara had £50 to spend on a day trip to
France.
The exchange rate was ε 1.55 = £1
How many Euros did she get in
exchange for her £50?
She saw a watch she liked priced at
ε43. How much was the watch to the
nearest penny?
A shopkeeper uses this formula to
calculate the total cost when customers
pay by monthly instalments.
C = d + 24 × m
C is the total cost in pounds.
d is the deposit in pounds.
m is the monthly instalment in pounds.
The value of a vintage
car rises from £36 000 to
£63 000.
Work out the percentage
increase in the price of
the car.
(a) The deposit for a wardrobe is £16.
The monthly payments are £10.
What is the total cost?
Mutasem wants to buy two
of these luxury chairs.
At which shop is the price of
the two chairs the cheapest?
You must show your working.
Martha books a 14-night holiday in May. She books for herself, husband Billy
and daughter Mary (aged 11). She books the holiday online. Explain clearly
why the total cost will be £990.
What is the question
asking me?
What Maths will I
be using?
What
Information
do I already have?
What Calculations
and working out do I
need to do?
How can I check that
my Answer is
correct?
What is the question
asking me?
What information do
I already have?
What Maths
will I be
using?
What
calculations /
working out do I
need to do?
How can I check
that my answer
is correct?