Rearranging Formulae: Changing the Subject

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KS4 GCSEBTC Style / Thinking Classrooms50 min

Learning Objective

Students can rearrange a formula to make any specified variable the subject, including cases requiring factorisation.

Lesson Overview

Students progress from isolating a single-operation variable through to rearranging formulae where the subject appears twice, requiring factorisation. Tasks change one layer of complexity at a time.

Materials

Vertical whiteboards or large paper
Dry-erase markers (one colour per group)
Pencils and paper for notes

Scaffolded Task Progression

1Task 1

Make

u

the subject of

v = u + a t

2Task 2

Make

a

the subject of

v = u + a t

3Task 3

Make

r

the subject of

A = π r^{2}

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