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Pupils in England and Wales are increasingly being asked to undertake investigative-type work, be it the new compulsory projects in data handling for GCSE Mathematics (age 14 -16) (see Browne 2002) or the Key Skills topic application of number. This article shows how teachers can generate realistic project scenarios using real data and produce indicative model solutions from the same data. The projects range from simple presentational problems for data, through hypothesis testing to complex modelling scenarios.

Hands-on data activities in the classroom are often avoided by teachers of KS3 and KS4 mathematics in the UK. In many cases where data handling skills are taught in the classroom, the activities used involve data which is safe, predictable and the outcomes are limited to ensure the task of marking and assessment is made easier. Such an approach reduces the opportunities to engage students to think for themselves, including key decisions about the choice of data, data collection methods, and the process of analysis and interpretation. In developing hands-on data activities for Crea8te Maths (A Government funded project for Yorkshire and Humberside to improve numeracy), we acknowledged activities that had a student led element generally have more interesting outcomes, promote ownership, engagement, motivation within the class, and encourage lateral thinking. Anecdotal evidence of the benefits of our developed activities including 'Stretchiness' and 'Classroom Olympics' are presented. Based on our experiences in activity development and teaching in the classroom we explore the opportunities for hands-on activities in the new Y12 curriculum involving solving real problems using data and mathematics.

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