The Whizz

Children destined for wealth, health, and happiness in adult life can be spotted at five, if a new University of London study is anything to go by.

The Daily Telegraph reports the study:

Predictions of adult poverty are now so accurate that up to nine in 10 youngsters destined for a lifetime of disadvantage can be spotted and helped before they leave primary school, it says.

Even a simple copying test that gauges a child’s ability to replicate shapes and patterns at the age of five is an extremely accurate predictor of later success in school and early adulthood according to the study, by the Institute of Education at the University of London.

(more…)

It might not help you write backwards, sketch the Vitruvian Man, or design a wooden helicopter, but in one tiny respect this challenging ‘eyeballing’ test might just make you a little more like the great Leonardo da Vinci.  

Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci

The great man of art and science was a famously good draftsman with an apparently perfect eye for shape. The short, fun maths test above will have you estimating the positions of parallelogram vertices, centrepoints of circles, midpoints of angles and more. It will test your knowlege of geometry and your natural sense of space and shape, just watch your mouse doesn’t slip.

If you’re looking for something a little more useful, but no less challenging, you should check out any one of the 142 animated Shape and Space lessons in Maths-Whizz…

(via kottke.org)

India - home of Rhinosceros unicornis, Elephas maximus, and the rare Panthera tigris (shown below for PURELY scientific purposes), is now home to that increasingly populous animal, Whizzer mathsii.

(more…)

There are loads of features to try in Maths-Whizz! Read on for our introduction to Maths-Whizz Tutoring.

(more…)

In what is being described as a policy u-turn (and a relief for kids across England and Wales) Minister for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls today announced the government would be scrapping SATs tests for 14-year-olds.

Tests for 11-year-olds will remain, at least until the Key Stage 2 tests have been evaluated as part of a new review process that will investigate the KS3 tests’ replacements. These SATs tests might be replaced by New York-style quality report cards - the BBC news site has a short introduction to the New York reports here.

This summer’s marking fiasco has made many understandably wary of SATs, and it seems Balls’ response will prove popular with teachers and students alike. As Donald MacLeod, on the Guardian Mortarboard blog, writes:

That sounds rather as if the days of all Sats are numbered in England - they have already gone in Wales and never existed in Scotland - in favour of testing when the teacher thinks the child is ready. This system is already being piloted. Good news all round?

Read on for tips and information about your forthcoming Maths-Whizz student experience!

(more…)

As promised here, the Maths-Whizz experience is changing.

We’re launching a new website, and updating our online service for schools, parents, and students, alike. Users will very soon see the following changes:

(more…)

Paddington Bear, the endearing ursine adventurer with a penchant for marmalade, turned fifty today!

Paddington is close to our hearts for the simple reason that he took his name from the very station in which our UK offices are based.

(more…)

New Scientist puzzle-setter Rob Eastaway is featured on the NCETM website in a three-part essay on ‘joined-up mathematics’, the first two instalments of which are online.

Eastaway’s essay is required, and fun, reading for anyone following the directions that maths and science education are taking, with the emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) and the sometimes forced emphasis on making maths relevant.

(more…)

If ever a person needed proof that maths has its uses outside the classroom and the engineering lab, they might find it here. A cunning addition to Google Mail is designed to prevent tired and emotional emailers from sending messages they may later regret.

(more…)