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WillTeachMaths

Thinking-first maths tools

Real World Environments

This topic is about how natural systems can be modelled.

Explore the main idea

Placeholder text: this section will explain how the main tool works, what the user can change, and what they should notice as the visual responds.

Placeholder text: this section will connect the tool back to the wider topic, showing how the same mathematical idea appears in related projects and real situations.

About this topic

Environmental systems are a natural place to see mathematics as modelling: simplified rules, real constraints and visible consequences.

These pages are designed to make assumptions visible, so students can question the model as well as use it.

Explore this through river flow and flood-risk decisions, sunlight, optimisation and tree-like structures, diffusion, pollution and movement through networks.

Further exploration

Look up: watershed and catchment modelling

Explore next: diffusion on networks

Try searching for: flood risk modelling with rainfall data