The 82nd Academy Awards took place in March 2010

The BBC analysed all of the best actor and best actress Oscar winners and found out which characteristics occurred most frequently

Jeff Bridges won the best actor for Crazy Heart – a movie about a self destructive country and western singer. Bridges was born in Los Angeles on 4th December 1949 and is 6’ 1” tallWhat’s the same and what’s

different about Bridges and the ‘typical’ Oscar winner?

Sandra Bullock won the best actress award for The Blind Side, an American football sports drama. Bullock was born in Virginia on 26th July 1964 and is 5’ 7½” tall

The BBC also produced this graph showing the ages of all Oscar winners.

Is it likely or unlikely that an actress of Bullock’s age won?

Use the data from the BBC to decide which of the teachers in your school is most likely to win an Oscar!

Up2d8 mathsAnd the winner is…

Teacher Notes

And the winner is…Introduction:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science held the 82nd of its annual Academy Awards ceremonies on 7 March 2010. The first of theseceremonies was held on 16 May 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteenstatuettes were awarded, rewarding artists, directors and other personalities of the filmmaking industry. This year’s event was held at theAcademy’s permanent home, the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and was hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin with an audience of nearly 43million.

This resource looks at the common characteristics of the winners of the best actor and actress awards (for example, 88% of the winners of bestactor have been above average height) and poses the question – which of the teachers in your school is most likely to win an Oscar!?

Content objectives:This context provides the opportunity for teachers and students to explore a number of objectives. Some that may be addressed are:• select, construct and modify, on paper and using ICT, suitable graphical representations to progress an enquiry and identify key features

present in the data. • interpret results involving uncertainty and prediction• interpret graphs and diagrams and make inferences to support or cast doubt on initial conjecture. Process objectives: These will depend on the amount of freedom you allow your class with the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver theactivity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below:

Activity:The activity gives students the opportunity to make and justify predictions based on probabilities from a BBC analysis of past winners of the bestactor and best actress Oscar. Students are shown the results of the BBC analysis, are shown this year’s winners, and are asked to comparethem to the ‘expected’ results from the analysis. Students are asked to discuss what’s the same and what’s different about this year’s best

actor,Jeff Bridges, and the ‘typical’ winner and also to discuss whether it’s likely or unlikely that Sandra Bullock (born 1964) was the winner of the bestactress award.You might choose to stop the activity here, maybe asking students to give a written justification of their discussions, or you might choose tocontinue to the final slide which poses the question ‘which of the teachers in your school is most likely to win an Oscar?!’. In answering thisquestion students are likely to have to decide on the most important causal factors (why are 71% of male winners American?) and to balancethese attributes with the characteristics of (willing!) members of the staff.

Differentiation:You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. To make the task easier you could consider:• reducing the amount of data – asking the students to explore only two or three variables• scaffolding the task – breaking the analysis into manageable chunks to focus on for short lesson episodes• providing the students with details of just three or four members of staff and asking them to justify which of these is most likely to win• asking only for an oral justification rather than a written one

To make the task more complex you could consider:• giving the students free access to the data • reducing the scaffolding for the task – leaving the students to decide independently how to go about making their predictions• asking for a commentary explaining the key features of what the age graphic represents • asking for a written justification of the what’s the same and what’s different discussion• asking for a written justification of why the students have decided that one factor is more relevant than another

This task offers plenty of opportunities for developing students’ skills in justifying, and this might be a priority objective for the lesson

This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements.

Working in groups:This activity lends itself to paired work and small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely that you will allowthem access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually.

You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used toworking in groups in mathematics you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness andengagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Guidance for groupwork). You maywish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to specific group members.

Assessment:You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing theassessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide thatthis activity lends itself to comment only marking or to student self-assessment. If you use the APP model of assessment then you might use this activity to help you in building a picture of your students’ understandingAssessment criteria to focus on might be • use their own strategies within mathematics and in applying mathematics to practical contexts (Using and Applying Mathematics level 4)• draw simple conclusions of their own and give an explanation of their reasoning (Using and Applying Mathematics level 5)• solve problems and carry through substantial tasks by breaking them into smaller, more manageable tasks, using a range of efficient

techniques, methods and resources, including ICT; give solutions to an appropriate degree of accuracy (Using and Applying Mathematics level 6)

Probing questions:You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion which might include:• what’s the same and what’s different about the bars on either side of the age graphic?• what other ways can you think of to show the information about age?• is it certain that a 44-year old American male of above average height with dark hair and dark eyes will win the Oscar?• what other factors might influence the chances of someone winning an Oscar?• can you rank the factors in order of importance? Why have you chosen the top factor? The bottom factor?• why are so many winners American?

You will need:

The PowerPoint presentation and it might be useful to print out the second slide as a worksheet.

The first slide sets the scene

The second slide shows the graphic from the BBC website giving the results of their data analysis

The third slide shows this year’s winners and asks students to compare them to the ‘typical’ winner

The final slide sets the task asking ‘which of the teachers in your school is most likely to win an Oscar?!’