This activity went down so well with my Year 7s that it inspired them to create their own puzzles to test out on their friends. One girl even described it as her favourite maths lesson ever. And it was all based around algebra…

I think that introducing students to algebra via some simple mathematical magic is a wonderful way of inspiring them and engaging them in a subject that, for many youngsters, has got so many negative connotations. Collecting like terms, expanding brackets and the like can come later. This is a lovely collection of simple algebraic “tricks” that are bound to hook in your students and get them asking that crucial question of “why”.

Thank you for sharing!

Craig Barton

Download Maths Magic

Download It’s a Kind of Magic

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