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What is it?
If you are following the Edexcel new maths GCSE, then you may well have noticed the introduction of a delightful addition to the wonderful world of Sampling – the Capture-Recapture method. Something that until now had been confined to Biology classrooms has now happily found its way onto the maths syllabus. The problem is, of course, whenever anything new comes along, there tends to be a relative scarcity of good resources to help teach it. Fortunately, this resource will help take care of many of your Capture-Recapture needs. It consists of a PowerPoint with some really well presented worked examples, followed by a codebreaker activity complete with the obligatory corny joke!

How can it be used?
The resource itself is pretty straight-forward: there are worked examples and questions for the students to try. However, there is plenty of opportunity to discuss the logic of the Capture-Recapture technique, its merits and limitations, and the necessary assumptions that make it a valid process. Likewise, you always have the option of challenging your students to make up their own questions, or (and this is my favourite) do a live demonstration of the technique in class using a bag of coloured counters. Maths in action!

Thanks so much for sharing
Craig Barton

Download: Capture-Recapture 
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