This toolkit enables teachers and families to engage students in the planning and
execution of a research expedition to the Arctic Ocean. It is based on the Catlin
Arctic Survey and involves students in some “real world” mathematics to do with
navigation, data handling and healthy eating.
At Home >>
Maths on Ice is ideal for helping out with homework. For younger children, the short
videos are a great way of putting the complex issue of climate change into context.
The maths resources look at maths from a different perspective. Answers are helpfully
provided at the end of the resource; these can be removed from the Guidance Notes
(editable version for teachers) and given to young people as a holiday challenge
or in preparation for formal exams1.
Coupled with the Climate Change resource, Maths on Ice is the ideal way to bring
homework to life and encourage independent thinking.
If you have children of different ages you can separate out the tasks and encourage
the children in collaborative working to plan and ‘carry out’ their own Arctic Survey.
By way of example, these could range from planning meals and estimating the potential
weight loss of explorers, to the plotting of data collected and working out the
best way to get supplies to the explorers.
The Guidance Notes give clear instructions as to how to get the best out of this
resource. There are notes on each slide of the presentation (which opens as a non-downloadable
PowerPoint) and how to incorporate the video clips with the photographs and Worksheets.
The PowerPoint presentation is very clear and can be played as one long presentation
or each individual component (video clips, images and data sheets) can be downloaded
from the Resources Gallery.
At School >>
The videos that are an integral part of this resource are an ideal introduction
to the Catlin Arctic Survey. Chip Cunliffe, Catlin Arctic Survey, Head of Operations,
explains in a video clip, the route that the team have taken; this serves as an
ideal introduction to the resource for students.
This resource is perfect for cross-curricular weeks in schools and complements Maths,
Geography, Citizenship, Science and Global Citizenship courses.
The lesson planning guidance offers the opportunity to edit the lessons to suit
your own students. You can either extract a single resource to complement your own,
or incorporate the entire Maths on Ice resource into a wider scheme of work.
The PowerPoint presentations are all whiteboard ready and can therefore be manipulated
electronically to deliver whole class lessons. There is the opportunity to show
either the whole presentation or to section out the media that you are most interested
in from the Resources Gallery. The Guidance Notes provide a clear accompaniment.
The combination of short videos, presentations and active learning means that all
you need for a full three or four part lesson is here.
The Worksheets encourage students to follow the set curriculum in the context of
the Arctic Survey and there is the opportunity for students to then compare their
answers with the actual readings taken by the Catlin Arctic Survey explorers.
The Worksheet on organising the supply chain is an ideal example of how this resource
encourages cross curricular work1.