What is it?
Unlike something like Venn Diagrams, Iteration is one of the new GCSE Maths topics that will literally be completely brand new to many students. My Year 11s were freaking out at the little “n + 1” subscript, staring at it with a mixture of contempt and confusion. So, any resource that will help with the delivery of Iteration is always going to go down well with me, and this is a little beauty! Students are presented with three classic iteration questions, together with the steps necessary to solve them. The twist, of course, is that these steps are in the wrong order, and students must battle through to assemble them correctly. This should provoke plenty of discussion, whilst also offering much needed support for any students who are struggling.

How can it be used?
The activity pretty much runs itself. Students will need an introduction to the concept of iteration, and maybe benefit from you going through one example, but then they can be left to their own devices! It also makes for a nice display, either for the classroom wall or students’ books. Indeed, @MrMattock on Twitter shared a lovely image of the results of his class’ efforts with the activity.

There is also potential for a nice bit of extension. Options could include giving students all 3 questions mixed up together, taking out a couple of the cards and asking students to complete them, and the evergreen classic of challenging students to create their own match-up questions which can then be set for other students.

Thanks so much for sharing

Craig Barton

Download Iteration Worked Solution Card Match 

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