Math Department

The mathematics department in Al Sahwa is working towards making all students able to investigate/discover the mathematics rules in the hope that the students will be able to think for themselves and apply the knowledge they have gained to more complex questions.

 In grade 7 and 8 the students tend to follow for the most part the Heinemann Mathematics syllabus and so are covering a wide range of topics, giving the students a broad spectrum of Mathematics which is then covered in more detail in later years.

 In 2007/2008 year it is hoped that a more investigative type program will be in place in the grade 7 year as the school is hoping to move into a more “PYP” style of teaching.

 In grade 9 and 10 the work that is being covered comes from the IGCSE syllabus which is an international exam from Cambridge in England the topics that are being covered are very varied and cover topics such as Number work, Algebra and Shape & space.

Under number work the students would deal with topics such as Standard form, sets, ratio and proportion as well as percentages

Under the topic of Algebra all types of equations are solved, all types of simplification is covered including simplifying complex fractions.

Under the topic of Shape and space, trigonometry would be covered both in right angled triangles and in non-right angled triangles. The topic of co-ordinate geometry would be covered as well as most forms of Euclidean geometry (mainly circle geometry)

 Last year was the first time that the grade 10’s wrote the IGCSE exam and the results were very good with 56% managing to achieve a C or above average.

 In grade 11 and 12 we revert back to the ministry exam and at the end of the grade 12 year the students write the Al Thanawiama. The topics that are covered in these two years are things such as Algebra again simplifying fractions and solving equations to various degrees of difficulty. Partial fractions are covered during the grade 12 year. Then there is a section in grade 11 covering co-ordinate geometry and Euclidean geometry but it isn’t covered to any great extent in the grade 12 year. In grade 12 a large part of the syllabus is calculus looking at both differentiation and integration. Logarithms, vectors and sequence and series are also covered during the course of the grade 12 year.

 The grade 12 students have to produce a portfolio of their work at the end of the year for presentation to the ministry and all the various forms of assessment are included in this portfolio.

 In All grades alternate forms of assessment are carried out, for example:

• Writing a journal entry which would involve a student writing an essay or letter to a friend explaining how to solve a problem given the previous day in class.

• Making a broacher which involves the students putting together a display for a topic, in other words giving a summary of a particular topic in a presentable way.

• Board work, this involves explaining a piece of work to the rest of the class while up at the board

• Presenting a lesson to the rest of the class, some examples of the grade 10’s doing their presentations are included in the photographs below. Also the odd grade 12 lesson presentation video is included just click the link to view it.

• A correction item which would involve a student looking a piece of work with errors in the work and having to identify the common errors in the work and making the necessary corrections.

 Pi () Day (14 March)

Is the day when the Mathematics department tries to do something particularly different, It is a chance for the students  in Grade 7 to see that  is a non-recurring decimal, for the students to make use of their knowledge of long division to try and find a recurring decimal for the number .  It is a chance for the grade 8’s to try and find a value for  by measuring everyday round objects and calculating the circumference divided by the diameter in an attempt to see if a relationship exists between these values.

P.O. Box 644       Mina Al Fahal         Postal Code 116     Sultanate of Oman         Telephone:       +968 24607620    Fax: +968 24695927