Autograph

KS3 - KS4 (Years 7 - 11)

Mathematics

This product is distributed by Eastmond Publishing Ltd (Tel: 01832 273444)

The product is a very versatile, easy to use Mathematics tool that enables the student to gain deeper insight into some otherwise quite challenging Mathematics. It is a piece of software that the pupil should be introduced to at Key Stage 3 and that would then be able to utilise it to assist with GCSE and A-Level coursework.

Autograph is a flexible tool designed to support teaching and learning in Graphs and Statistics. It is a massive piece of software with applications across all areas of Mathematics at all Key Stages. It would be easy for teachers to be fooled by its apparent complexity into thinking it is only appropriate for more able GCSE students and Sixth-formers. Pupils of all ages and abilities can, after a short period of initial training from the teacher, access Autograph because of its clever use of toolbars and drop-down menus. Autograph is supported by valuable Help pages and the publisher's website. It is an excellent package for all schools.

This package is an extremely practical and useful mathematical tool and is an essential part of any Maths teacher's kit. It shows obvious improvements on the original Acorn version. It is not an all-singing, all-dancing piece of software designed to entertain users; instead it just gets on with the job, allowing students to investigate Maths in their own way by trying a wide variety of functions and formulae to see how they are graphed and to draw conclusions about the structure of the equations and the implications to be drawn by changing coefficients. The package is flexible enough to allow students to investigate 'What if?' questions. The program provides a practical approach to problem solving. Students can use it to try out new ideas, check results and process large quantities of data. One of its major advantages over other packages is its ability to plot coordinates as well as equations. Teachers can use it as a demonstration tool and a resource to prepare worksheets with graphs or accurately written equations. Any graph task can be tackled with this. The section on Statistics is thorough and covers a wide range of material.

Without doubt, purchase of the Autograph program should be included in a Maths department budget. It has a versatile graph-plotting package giving good coverage of the GCSE Syllabus. It is a superb way of drawing all kinds of graphs (including statistical graphs) quickly, and in a way that can easily be interpreted. It is an invaluable tool for a teacher to use in demonstrations, but also for pupils to work independently using their own data or investigational worksheet to explore. It is not courseware so it is not a resource which simply allows pupils to sit down and work through exercises as a revision tool, but it is definitely a useful tool for teaching and learning. There are lots of resources within the package as well as on the website, and there are courses available for teachers to attend which are to be recommended.

During the trial period I introduced the students to the topic and how we would investigate it using the software. This case study will focus on the lessons, which investigated the equation of a straight line and how the position of the line is defined by its gradient and the y intercept. As this was the initial lesson, I had set up the electronic whiteboard so that I could demonstrate to the class how to input the equation of a straight line for subsequent investigation. Once this had been completed and the various questions the class raised had been answered, they were all directed to their individual workstations and expected to work through an exercise.

Due to the new coursework module for MA4, Handling Data, I decided to see if using Autograph would help speed up the production of statistical diagrams rather than use Excel for the diagrams as I have previously done. On exploring Autograph, I was delighted to see that it could not only produce histograms but also box and whisker diagrams, cumulative frequency diagrams, and produce values such as mean, median, lower quartile, upper quartile and even standard deviation and variance. Although the last two values are not in the GCSE Syllabus, the program would allow pupils to explore these if they wanted to extend their opportunity of gaining higher marks for their coursework.

I used the Autograph package as the main resource for teaching a low-ability group about linear equations. I felt that this program was a good choice, as it would allow me to inject pace and animation into a challenging topic for sometimes poorly motivated

If you can imagine four able pupils, tackling different topics. These students were Year 9, post SATS and were starting their GCSE work.