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Given the common difference and first term of an arithmetic sequence, work out the index of the nth term of the sequence.
Framed as a word problem with ticket numbers in an ice cream shop.
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England schools
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England university
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Scotland schools
Taxonomy: mathcentre
Taxonomy: Kind of activity
Taxonomy: Context
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From users who are members of Transition to university :
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said | Ready to use | 7 years, 8 months ago |
Elliott Fletcher | said | Needs to be tested | 7 years, 8 months ago |
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said | Has some problems | 7 years, 8 months ago |
Aiden McCall | said | Needs to be tested | 7 years, 8 months ago |
Hannah Aldous | said | Needs to be tested | 7 years, 8 months ago |
Lauren Richards | said | Has some problems | 7 years, 9 months ago |
History
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Ready to use
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 8 months ago
Saved a checkpoint:
I've done a lot of rewording, and added random names.
Elliott Fletcher 7 years, 8 months ago
Published this.Elliott Fletcher 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Chris Graham commented 7 years, 8 months ago
Elliott, since you've been working on this one already, can we add a step with the equation for an arithmetic sequence and gaps for the first value and difference. In addition, let's put everything before "How many customers..." into the statement.
Chris Graham 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Elliott Fletcher commented 7 years, 8 months ago
I have mentioned that ticket number 1 recieves strawberry ice cream in the question statement.
Elliott Fletcher 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Chris Graham commented 7 years, 8 months ago
Yes please Elliott
Elliott Fletcher commented 7 years, 8 months ago
Do you want me to edit this question as well Chris?
Chris Graham commented 7 years, 8 months ago
The advice assumes that the student knows that ticket number 1 receives strawberry ice cream. That works out OK, but perhaps this should be stated explicitly in the statement.
Chris Graham 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Aiden McCall commented 7 years, 8 months ago
I have added advice to the question.
Aiden McCall 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 8 months ago
Saved a checkpoint:
I've split the parts into separate questions, since they're unrelated.
This leaves the ice cream shop question, and it needs new advice.
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 8 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 9 months ago
Saved a checkpoint:
Part d should follow on from c, using the same sequence, and only ask for one (large) term. As it is, I've got to work out the formula for two new sequences and only get marked on the final answer.
Has something gone awry with the ice cream question? Jenny's friends both have tickets with larger numbers than hers. How does that help work out how many people got strawberry before Jenny? Unless you don't want to say explicitly how many flavours there are, that information is sort of a red herring.
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Lauren Richards 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Lauren Richards commented 7 years, 9 months ago
- Typo in part b) - it says sequeces instead of sequences. Also, I think you should separate the different questions in part a) and part b) by i) and ii).
- i) in part c) should be in italics and the writing for the question should be on the line underneath it. I would say the sentences coming after the i) should be capitalised, too. You're missing full stops at the end of the sentences in part c).
- Is part c)ii) necessary? I'm not sure that it is particularly clear and don't think it is testing anything of importance.
- The sequence I got given in part d) was exactly the same as the sequence I got in part c). Is it randomised? Is there a way of making sure you don't get the same sequence? I think I would put part d) as an extension of part c) and get rid of c)ii).
- part e) - not sure that I would say "cycles through" - I think "alternates between sequentially" might be better.
- For part c) in the advice, you have said "We can use the formula to find the 6 term." but in the parts you have managed to formulate it so it says "6th term". Also, maybe at the end of c)ii) advice, reiterate that the answer you get is the value of the 6th term.
- I would definitely make part d)i) to be another section of part c) if the sequence is supposed to be the same.
- I don't think the middle section of the advice for part e) is particularly clear. In the question, I actually don't think I would tell them how many flavours there are, I thinl that should be part of the question.
- There is a typo in the advice for part e) - it says "are" instead of "our".
- I think part a) and b) should be swapped around. For a) they need to know how to calculate the common difference and then use that to generate values but in b) they only need to calculate common differences, which is less difficult.
- I do really like this question, and particularly part e).
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Christian Lawson-Perfect 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Christian Lawson-Perfect commented 7 years, 9 months ago
In part c, I'd ask the student to give an expression for an in terms of n before getting them to compute a value. (Or, ask for an at a particular small n to check they've got the correspondence right, then ask for an expression, then calculate an for a given big n)
Part d smells a lot like a fake context. Suppose you're Jenny, and you want to know how many other customers have had the strawberry ice cream before you. What information do you have? You wouldn't be told "the 1st, 6th, 11th, ... customers receive strawberry". You'd either be told "there are five flavours, and the shops cycles through them", or you'd notice that people 5 and 10 places in front of you in the queue also got strawberry. You also need to give a reason for Jenny to know which number customer she is.
Maybe turn it around slightly: Jenny counts x people buy ice creams before her, and the people y and y+a places in front of her got strawberry. How many people were given strawberry before Jenny?
Christian Lawson-Perfect commented 7 years, 9 months ago
Before I even look at this question: never say "basic"!!!
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Has some problems
Bradley Bush commented 7 years, 9 months ago
Great question, I only have a few really pedantic points.
For part b) of the advice, I might add a another step for 2d=\simpifly{variable 1}{variable 2} into the solution so that you aren't jumping two lines of algebra.
With the equation punctuation in the advice, I'm not sure you are treating every equation like part of a sentence.
Your last line of advice reads "..she is the 31th person", maybe either reword your question so this doesn't happen, remove variables that wont fit the current sentence or alter the "th" to be a variable dependant on the number before it to solve this.
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 9 months ago
Gave some feedback: Needs to be tested
Hannah Aldous 7 years, 9 months ago
Created this.There are 47 other versions that do you not have access to.
Name | Type | Generated Value |
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index | integer |
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d | integer |
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person | dict |
Dictionary with 3 entries
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Generated value: integer
This variable doesn't seem to be used anywhere.
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