The Currency of the Bean

100 Politicians are stranded on a desert island with a tin of beans. They all blame each other and discuss the possibilities for the future. They die rather quickly of thirst.

100 Economists are stranded on a desert island with a tin of beans. They develop a complex system of trade with Loans, Hedge funds, and Ponzi Schemes all based on the currency of the Bean (which they correctly predicted would increase in value as they became closer to death). They all die of starvation; 97 end their lives in insurmountable debt, three of them have enormous equity in the Bean

100 Christians are stranded on a desert island with a tin of beans. They pray for more beans. As they die of starvation, they realize the error of their ways and begin to worship the almighty Bean.

100 People of mixed religions are stranded on a desert island. They don't notice the tin of beans in the bloodshed.

100 Scientists are stranded on a desert island with a tin of beans. They break up into small groups and specialize in their own different areas, building shelter, gathering water, food and resources. They survive and develop a peaceful balanced society.

KS1 level 3 some practice questions

download pdf here

New KS1 maths worksheet added

Hi all,

I made this for my six year old daughter who needed some practice at working with money.

How many 20s/50s

Please see below for more worksheets like this

Who is Chris Hadfield?

This week the teaching ideas will all have a space theme, and a great way to start is with a real spaceman - Chris Hadfield. You may have heard of him already, but if not please see some of the links below, I am sure you will agree he is a genuine inspiration. His deep-learning in a wide range of fields from mechanical engineering to shooting gave him the skills required to excel and become commander of the International Space Station education in 2010 for a total of five months in space.

You can here an interview with him at the naked scientist podcast where he fixes the toilet. http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/astronomy/show/20140110/

His is also famous for his song Space Oddity on YouTube

I showed my daughter (age 6), she asked "is he actually in space?" and "is he dead?"

Anyway, enjoy...


Using we, were, where, we're, I'm, was

Two useful examples

I was lost in the middle of Wales. No one knew where I was. Next time I travel, I'm going to bring along a map.

We were lost in the middle of Wales. No one knew where we were. Next time we travel, we're going to bring along a map.

Why I think Fracking is a bad idea (now)

1) As global resources are consumed and become more scarce, natural gas prices will increase. This will tend to make any future extraction more profitable than today.

2) In the future, improvements in technology may also decrease the cost of extraction (both financial and environmental)

3) Today's investment should be directed at reducing CO2 emissions (wind and solar)


The Keeling Curve

A great educational tool for kids over about 8 years old is this site http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu

It shows the Keeling curve, an interactive record of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels going back 800,000 years. You can click along the bottom to select various time-spans to display. Select the one-year or two-year options and you will see the seasonal variations due to uptake and release by plant life. Full explanation here http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/why-are-seasonal-co2-fluctuations-strongest-in-northern-latitudes/

Select 1700-present for a very convincing and worrying graph!

The older data is extrapolated from ice cores, the most recent data is from live atmospheric observations.