Inventive teaching recently brought data handling vividly to life as Year 5 pupils took part in a hands-on investigation... without a single textbook in sight.
Guided by our specialist maths teachers, the children explored data through a practical experiment. They timed how many cards they could flip over in ten seconds using their dominant hand, carefully recording their results before repeating the process with their non-dominant hand.
Before analysing the data, pupils were encouraged to think like mathematicians. Would the number of cards increase with practice? Many predicted it would. Was the difference between the dominant and non-dominant hand less than we expected?
“Yes,” one pupil explained, “because the non-dominant hand went second so we had already practised.”
With results collected, the class combined their data and began asking bigger questions. “If we put all our results together, how many times have we carried out the experiment?” prompted their teacher, encouraging the pupils to see the bigger mathematical picture.
The investigation then moved from experiment to interpretation. Working collaboratively, the class gathered their results into a tally chart before transforming the data into bar graphs, pie charts and colourful posters.
By moving the lesson into the art room, pupils were able to represent their mathematical thinking visually, using colour, cutting and creative presentation to make their data clear and engaging.
One pupil reflected: “It’s fun to be in the art room because we can use colour to show our maths work. And colour makes everything better!”
Working in teams, some pupils focused on creating precise pie charts while others designed vibrant posters to communicate their findings. The result was a classroom buzzing with collaboration, curiosity and creativity.
It is a great example of how thoughtful, energetic teaching can turn abstract ideas into something pupils can see, test and truly understand.
Pupils create a big data set during a maths lesson.
