Do they know it's Christmas?

At a fairly seasonal time, I've been looking through some old quiz rounds that I've written, and particularly amusing myself with the OUQS Committee Quizzes, which were all about writing clever themed rounds. This is that I particularly enjoyed from Christmas 2005, I believe. If you were wondering, the theme was "Do they know it's Christmas?".

1. Many Orthodox churches, such as the Coptic and Russian Orthodox, will not know that it’s Christmas time on 25^th December. What date do they celebrate Christmas?

2. Which Oxford Christian Society aims to make sure they know it’s Christmas time by annually announcing the date on which Christmas will fall?

3. Some Christian sects will not believe it’s Christmas time. Which group, possibly most noticeable for their rejection of blood transfusion, do not celebrate Christmas?

4. Other religions don’t quite accept that it is Christmas time, but that’s no reason not to celebrate. The Jewish festival of Hanukkah is celebrates the events described in which apocryphal book of the Bible?

5. Do we know when it’s Christmas time? How many days is it ‘til Christmas?

6. Does he know “Do They Know it’s Christmas Time?” What single surpassed “Do They Know it’s Christmas Time?” as the all time highest selling UK single in 1997?

7. You know when it’s Christmas time when repeats of old TV series start appearing. At the beginning the only Father Ted Christmas Special, Ted rescues a group of priests from the largest example of what in Ireland?

8. Do you know your Christmas Time? The twelve days of Christmas spans the time between Christmas Day and which other Christian Feast Day, celebrated on 6^th January?

9. When you’ve known that it was Christmas Time, it’ll be Boxing Day, otherwise known as St. Stephen’s Day. The story of St Stephen is told in which book of the bible?

10. It doesn’t have to be Christmas time, but you know it’s my quiz when there’s a random piece of education about Belfast thrown into the quiz. What is the name of the Belfast Cathedral, outside which stands the famed “Black Santa”, who is the dean of the cathedral collecting money for charity throughout December?

Half the fun is...

The last couple years have been good for travel from me, and being the sort of person that I am, planning the travel tends to be almost as fun as actually travelling! It'll come as little surprise that I was someone who used to play with maps and timetables when I was younger. That really is no joke...

Anyhow, I've come across a website that has made me, if it were possible, even more obsessed. It's called Tripit, which acts as a travel itinerary accumulator, so you make your bookings for flights, coaches, trains, hotels, activities and whatever, forward them on to Tripit and they sort it out so the itinerary is in one place. It's entirely possible that I'm one of the few people who could find this fun and exciting, but the itineraries made are quite cool, and in case anyone falls into the same personality type as me, I thought I'd share...

Beyond a joke. Literally.

Quite a popular joke that keeps being pushed in the faces of mathematics teachers is the following comment on the evolution of British mathematics teaching:

1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?

2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or £80.
What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2008
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and
inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the
preservation of our woodlands.
He does this so he can make a profit of £20.
What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers. )

We can all have a laugh at this, safe in the knowledge that this is hyperbole, and that although worried at the direction, we can be confident it won't get this bad. Or so I thought, until this question from my top set Year 8 was pointed out to me,

A penguin is standing on an iceberg that is melting because of global warning. It now has a diameter of 6m.
(a) Calculate the area for the penguin to stand on.
(b) Where else could the penguin go to live?

Part (b) I'm sure will be enough for people to think that I've just pushed the joke that little bit beyond believability, but alas not, it really was there. I'm trying to assess whether that was better or worse than the question from a Year 7 textbook that, after a question on calculating the number of loyalty card points could be earned on purchase of bananas, genuinely asked the question,

(c) Do you like bananas?

I can't think why so many maths teachers lose confidence in the system...

The Machine is us/ing us

You can tell it's a quiet night - I've been looking through some old videos that I've enjoyed in the past, and came across this one. It's a pretty cool way of introducing what's really meant by "Web 2.0"

Negative Number Confusion

I feel that most people I tell about this article are starting to think that I'm spinning some sort of tale. Now admittedly, that's not massively unlike me, I'm quite happy to build up a lot of story around the telling of a simple joke, but for once this is really true - read this story from the Manchester Evening News all the way back from 2007.

My favourite quote has to be,

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."

but I must admit it wouldn't be half as funny if it didn't have a "I'm not having it" at the end. It's almost enough to make a maths teacher give up and go home...