Welcome to the September edition of NRICH

This month our theme is Communicating and Reflecting: here we get involved in the conversational side of mathematics, with problems which naturally lead to discussion and sharing of ideas and methods. Which forms of communication and presentation of the mathematics will prove to be the most effective? Through discussion and explanation you will refine your thinking and perhaps make connections with other areas of mathematics.

This month our articles deserve special mention: You can read about talk in the mathematics classroom, a must for any thoughtful teacher; issues surrounding the development of the understanding of proof in school mathematics and, for our most advanced users, mathematical modelling in mechanics.

Our activities are organised by stage, but many of the problems work at a wide range of levels. This is particularly true in a month devoted to conversation, so why not experiment with parts of the site into which you might not normally venture?


Don't forget that each problem includes a page of Teachers' Notes suggesting ways in which the tasks might bring communicating and reflecting into the classroom.

Also, why not submit a solution to one of the problems? The submitted solutions will be reviewed, and edited to appear on the site in October.