English National Curriculum, Programme Of Study For Key Stage 3 Mathematics

Subject Content:

Pupils should be taught to generate terms of a sequence from either a term-to-term or a position-to-term rule

Here are some specific activities, investigations or visual aids we have picked out. Click anywhere in the grey area to access the resource.

Missing Terms Can you work out which numbers are missing from these number sequences?

Matchstick Patterns Create a formula to describe the nth term of a sequence by examining the structure of the diagrams.

Arithmetic Sequences An exercise on linear sequences including finding an expression for the nth term and the sum of n terms.

Arithmetic Sequences Video A reminder of how to find the next term, the nth term and the sum of terms of an arithmetic or linear sequence.

Geometric Sequences An exercise on geometric sequences including finding the nth term and the sum of any number of terms.

Fibonacci Quest A number of self marking quizzes based on the fascinating Fibonacci Sequence.

Venn Diagram of Sequences Find the formula for the nth term of sequences that belong in the given sets.

Sequences Table Challenge Complete the table showing the terms of the sequences and the formulas for the nth terms.

Click on a topic below for suggested lesson Starters, resources and activities from Transum.

Sequences A pattern of numbers following a rule is called a sequence. There are many different types of sequence and this topic introduces pupils to some of them. The most basic sequences of numbers is formed by adding a constant to a term to get the next term of the sequence. This rule can be expressed as a linear equation and the terms of the sequence when plotted as a series of coordinates forms a straight line. More complex sequences are investigated where the rule is not a linear function. Other well-known sequences includes the Fibonacci sequence where the rule for obtaining the next term depends on the previous two terms. Sequences can be derived from shapes and patterns. A growing patterns of squares or triangles formed from toothpicks is often used to show linear sequences in a very practical way. Diagrams representing sequences provides interesting display material for the classroom. Typically pupils are challenged to find the next term of a given sequence but a deeper understanding is needed to find intermediate terms, 100th term or the nth term of a sequence.

How do you teach this topic? Do you have any tips or suggestions for other teachers? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make these free resources even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world. Click here to enter your comments.

English National Curriculum, Programme Of Study For Key Stage 3 Mathematics

Algebra