Surprising things pupils don't know?

[letsgomaths]

Usually, we adults are surprised when the younger generation do know something we don't expect. But are there any times you have been surprised by a child or teenager being quite unfamiliar with something you thought they would know about, or have had to shift your expectations? Here are some I things I have had to explain unexpectedly, come and share yours!

Pin the tail on the donkey. I used it in a maths question about probability: a pupil had never even heard of it! I didn't get them to play it though.

Also about probability, I've sometimes had to explain playing cards to teenagers who have never used them.

I once had to explain to a teenager what a microscope is used for: it was news to them.

I was going to add the Millennium Bug to this list (it seems like only yesterday everyone was terrified of the impending doom), then I realised most of my pupils hadn't been born then!

I quite enjoy telling pupils about old technology, such as looking things up on microfiche, or TVs that were not flat screen.

I was at university with a young woman who, as we walked past a delivery being unloaded at a butcher's shop said "What's that?" about a pig carcass hanging in the lorry. When I told her, she was amazed and horrified at a) the size of it b) that it was legal to transport it that way and c) what method would be used to kill a creature that size. She had only ever seen meat in a package in the supermarket, had never been in a butcher's shop and had never seen a live pig.

DS had pretty poor motor skills so amazed us when he learnt to tie his shoe laces after being shown how just a few times. We assumed it would be an uphill struggle. We also taught him to throw and catch at home as he was keen to play cricket and really struggled. We spent a lot of time practising that summer holiday but it worked and he made the team.