Coding and technology · Maths CAS idea
A clash checker for clubs and activities
CreativityService
Write a tool that checks a list of club times and rooms for clashes and suggests swaps, for the staff member who plans activities.
Where the maths comes in
Graphs and colouring, constraints and simple search.
Which CAS strand it fits
- Creativity: The arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
- Service: Unpaid, voluntary work with others that also has a learning benefit for you.
Your CAS coordinator decides how an experience counts at your school. Strand summaries are provisional (our words, being checked).
How to run it
- Learn how activities are planned and what goes wrong.
- Model it as a graph and code a checker.
- Test with real (non-personal) timetable data.
- Hand it over and check it is used.
How to evidence it
- Problem notes
- Code and tests
- Staff feedback
Date everything and keep it in your school's CAS portfolio as you go. More on what counts as evidence.
Reflection prompts
Questions to think about, not answers to copy. Write your reflections in your own words, in whatever form your school accepts.
- How did you turn a messy real problem into something code could solve?
- What did you have to simplify?
- Did the tool get used? Why or why not?
Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show
- Challenge and new skills. What could you not do at the start that you can do now? Which moment felt most uncomfortable, and what did you do next?
- Initiative and planning. What did you plan, and what did you have to change once you started? Who did you need to ask for permission or help, and how did you go about it?
- Strengths and growth. Which part of this did you find easiest, and why do you think that is? What would someone who watched you say you need to work on?
Whether you meet an outcome depends on what you actually do and reflect on, not on the idea. Outcome labels are our short summaries, being checked.
Safety and ethics
- Use only room and time data, no student names.
Agree every plan with your CAS coordinator first. Safety and ethics for maths CAS.
Check the maths behind your code in the free online grapher.