Any Applied Maths teachers out there?

Sarah3

Hi,

I have been asked to take on the teaching of Applied Maths to 5th and 6th years this year but have never taught it before so am wondering would it be more trouble than its worth.

I have been teaching Maths for a couple of years and am wondering would it be an easy enough progression to teach Applied Maths.

Also, what the course like?
Is it long? IS there any material online I could use within the classroom?

Any advice at all would be very welcome.

Teachm

Hi Sarah3.i am not a teacher of applied Maths but a teacher of Maths and physics of 20 years.i personally would not like to have to teach applied Maths as I have enough work with project Maths and knew junior science and physics syllabii that are comin soon.it might suit you however if you are a young teacher and are trying to enhance your cv to improve employment opportunities either in your own school or elsewhere.there is a brill site called "the physics teacher .ie " that has applied Maths notes and the operator of the site is an applied Maths teacher.you can contact him on that site if you wish.hope this helps and good luck with it.

Dave0301

The TES also has material that can be used for Applied Maths although some topics are different, but you might find something useful. They can be found under the Mechanics section of A - Level Maths.

I would suggest brushing up on some of the Physics principles involved in the topics. It will be difficult to teach it if you do not have the background knowledge to set up the problems initially, and more difficult for the students to follow.

doc_17

Its like anything else, the more familiar you are with the material the better you will be at it and it will be easier to teach. Have a look at the syllabus here

http://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/Curriculum-and-Syllabus/Senior-Cycle-/Syllabuses-and-Guidelines/?pageNumber=7

It will be extra work as you are not familiar with it. And picking up a group of 6th years won't easy. If you do it then it should be good for you in terms of CID, or if you already have one of those ask for something else! No CSPE, SPHE! Or better yet, Friday afternoon clear on your timetable!

RealJohn

I've never taught it as a subject in itself but I usually do a bit of it for TYs and I've found it handy enough. I'm a qualified maths teacher but not qualified to teach either of physics or applied maths. I'd say that you shouldn't let it intimidate you. It's really not that bad, based on the bits I have taught.

TheDriver

Where are you located OP? There seems to be good support for the subject in urban centres but unfortunately it is scarce in rural areas. I see letters about courses held for teachers of applied maths from time to time in Cork and Dublin

cmssjone

Hi Sarah,

I taught the Applied Maths course for the first time 2 years ago and found the physics teacher website invaluable. Another resource I found particularly useful was:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL63819923917D99C0

For transition year students, I would just do chapter 2 (Linear acceleration) as the concepts are quite accessible and they only need to be able to do sim eqns and solve quadratics. The better students can get to the harder problems whilst the weaker students are able to do the basic ones.

For LC you generally get the better students who are also doing Physics, so they should get most of the mechanical concepts without you having to explain them. In our school I asked that the Trig section of the LC course to be done as early as possible to help the App Maths students with their Trig identities which seems to have helped the 2nd lot I took through last year.

Sarah3

TheDriver wrote: »

Where are you located OP? There seems to be good support for the subject in urban centres but unfortunately it is scarce in rural areas. I see letters about courses held for teachers of applied maths from time to time in Cork and Dublin

I'm in Limerick but would gladly travel to Cork if a course was available.