problem solving maths year 7

Grade 7 Maths Problems With Answers

Grade 7 math word problems with answers are presented. Some of these problems are challenging and need more time to solve. The Solutions and explanatiosn are included.

• In a bag full of small balls, 1/4 of these balls are green, 1/8 are blue, 1/12 are yellow and the remaining 26 white. How many balls are blue?
• In a school 50% of the students are younger than 10, 1/20 are 10 years old and 1/10 are older than 10 but younger than 12, the remaining 70 students are 12 years or older. How many students are 10 years old?
• If the length of the side of a square is doubled, what is the ratio of the areas of the original square to the area of the new square?
• The division of a whole number N by 13 gives a quotient of 15 and a remainder of 2. Find N.
• A person jogged 10 times along the perimeter of a rectangular field at the rate of 12 kilometers per hour for 30 minutes. If field has a length that is twice its width, find the area of the field in square meters.
• A car is traveling 75 kilometers per hour. How many meters does the car travel in one minute?
• Linda spent 3/4 of her savings on furniture and the rest on a TV. If the TV cost her $200, what were her original savings?
• Stuart bought a sweater on sale for 30% off the original price and another 25% off the discounted price. If the original price of the sweater was $30, what was the final price of the sweater?
• 15 cm is the height of water in a cylindrical container of radius r. What is the height of this quantity of water if it is poured into a cylindrical container of radius 2r?
• John bought a shirt on sale for 25% off the original price and another 25 % off the discounted price. If the final price was $16, what was the price before the first discount?
• How many inches are in 2000 millimeters? (round your answer to the nearest hundredth of of an inch).
• The rectangular playground in Tim's school is three times as long as it is wide. The area of the playground is 75 square meters. What is the primeter of the playground?
• John had a stock of 1200 books in his bookshop. He sold 75 on Monday, 50 on Tuesday, 64 on Wednesday, 78 on Thursday and 135 on Friday. What percentage of the books were not sold?
• N is one of the numbers below. N is such that when multiplied by 0.75 gives 1. Which number is equal to N? A) 1 1/2 B) 1 1/3 C) 5/3 D) 3/2
• In 2008, the world population is about 6,760,000,000. Write the 2008 world population in scientific notation.
• Calculate the circumference of a circular field whose radius is 5 centimeters.

Answers to the Above Problems

• 6 balls are blue
• 10 students are 10 years old
• x = 5/6 meter
• 20,000 square meters
• 368 square units
• 1250 meters per minute
• 78.74 inches
• 40 square meters
• 10? centimeters

Links and References

Visual maths worksheets, each maths worksheet is differentiated and visual.

Year 7 Maths Worksheets

Maths Worksheets / Year 7 Maths Worksheets

A superb range of maths worksheets for secondary school children in year 7 (aged 11-12). Cazoom Maths is a trusted provider of maths worksheets for secondary school children, and this set of maths worksheets is ideal for students in the first year of high school. Our mathematics resources are perfect for use in the classroom or for additional home learning, and are excellent Year 7 maths practice material. Our maths worksheets are used by over 30,000 teachers, parents and schools around the world and we are a Times Educational Supplement recommended resource for helping key stage 3 and key stage 4 students learn mathematics.

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Maths worksheets for year 7 students.

Try some free sample year 7 maths worksheets

Outstanding Year 7 Maths Worksheets

• Separate answers are included to make marking easy and quick.
• Over 350 pages of the highest quality year 7 maths worksheets. Each worksheet is differentiated, including a progressive level of difficulty as the worksheet continues.
• Single user licence for parents or teachers. Separate school licences are also available.
• Single digital pdf download, with worksheets organised into high level chapters of Algebra, Statistics, Number and Geometry, and further by subtopics. See below for the extensive range of sheets included.

List of Topics

Our Year 7 printable maths worksheets cover the full range of topics. See below the list of topics covered. All our maths worksheets can be accessed here .

• Expanding Brackets
• Factorising
• Inequalities
• Linear Functions
• Real Life Graphs
• Rearranging Equations
• Simplification
• Solving Equations
• Substitution
• Calculator Methods
• Fractions Decimals Percentages
• Mental Methods
• Negative Numbers
• Percentages
• Place Value
• Types of Number
• Written Methods
• Area and Perimeter
• Bearings Scale and Loci
• Compound Measures
• Constructions
• Coordinates
• Lines and Angles
• Similarity and Congruence
• Transformations
• Volume and Surface Area
• Histograms and Frequency Polygons
• Mean Median Mode
• Pie Charts and Bar Charts
• Probability
• Scatter Graphs
• Stem-and-Leaf Diagrams
• Two-Way Tables and Pictograms

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There are many types of problems in mathematics. The answer or solution to a problem can often be obtained in several ways.

Solving problems in mathematics can be frustrating... but also very satisfying.

Most problems can be solved by following a plan or strategy.

The following plan, which has four key steps, works well:

This plan can be summarised:

READ ---> PLAN ---> SOLVE ---> ANSWER

Other Hints on Problem Solving

Every problem is different but there are several approaches you can take which may result in progress being made:

• Estimate the answer
• Use trial and error (guess and check) until you get the correct answer.
• Look for patterns
• Use algebra and form equations
• Make a table or list
• Draw a diagram, graph or make a model
• Break the problem up into parts.

Types of Problems

Example 1 A rectangle is twice as long as it is wide. Its perimeter is 24 cm, What is its area?

A width of 4 cm with a length of 8 cm gives the required perimeter. Thus, the area is 4 × 8 = 32 cm 2

Therefore the width = 4 cm and the height = 8 cm The area = 8 × 4 = 32 cm 2

What are the next 3 numbers in the sequence 2, 5, 10, 17,...?

You would expect the gap between 17 and the next number to be 9, so the next number is 26. Following this pattern the next numbers are 37 and 50.

Method 2 Use a table:

Try to see a connection between the position of the number and the number itself.

The connection is that if you  SQUARE  the first number and  ADD   ONE  you get the sequence number.

Method 3 Draw a graph:

The next three numbers (in  blue ) can be found from the graph . These sequence graphs are often straight lines.

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Year 7 Maths

Year 7 maths covers some introductory concepts such as algebra, fractions, decimals, percentages, integers, angles, equations, and introduction to probability. These concepts are in fact the basics of all math concepts that they are going to learn in their future years. Gaining a deep understanding of these concepts builds a very strong foundation for their math knowledge. Thus, it is important to have the entire year 7 maths curriculum in hand.

Year 7 Maths - Curriculum

Year 7 maths curriculum is prepared for the children to have a basic idea about what they are going to learn in this year. Year 7 maths is mainly focused on angles, equations, and more. Here is a very clear picture of year 7 maths topics along with subtopics.

• Numbers and numerals
• Solving problems with addition and subtraction
• Solving problems with multiplication and division
• Factors and multiples
• Axioms and arrays
• Squares and square roots
• Positive and negative integers
• Operations on integers
• Order of operations
• Representation of fractions
• Types of fractions
• Equivalent fractions
• Comparing fractions
• Conversion between mixed numbers and improper fractions
• Add and subtract fractions with the same and different denominators
• Add and subtract simple algebraic fractions

Geometry - Lines and Angles

• Constructing and measuring angles
• Sum of angles at a point
• Sum of angles on a straight line
• Vertically opposite angles
• Angles formed by a transversal

Geometry - Triangles and Quadrilaterals

• Sum of angles in a triangle
• Pythagoras Theorem
• Sum of angles in a quadrilateral
• Triangles Constructions
• Quadrilaterals Constructions
• Angle problems using the properties of triangles and quadrilaterals

Geometry - Area and Perimeter of 2D Shapes

• Describing perimeters
• Finding the area of triangles , rectangles , squares , and parallelograms
• Exploring rectangles

Number Systems

• Binary number system
• Writing numbers in different number systems
• Conversion of a number from one system to another

Ratio, Proportion, and Percentages

• Percentages
• Algebraic expressions
• Use and understand algebraic notation
• Solving simple equations

Probability

• Frequency tables
• Venn diagrams

Key Topics of Year 7 Maths

All the topics of year 7 maths are already mentioned above. But the following are the key concepts that have their continuation even in the further years.

Lines and angles: In this topic, the child comes to know the properties of lines and angle s. The concept of angles formed by transversal also is included in this topic which involves subtopics such as alternate interior angles, corresponding angles, co-interior angles, and alternate exterior angles. These topics would further help the child to solve tricky problems of triangles and quadrilaterals as well.

Algebra: In year 7, the child learns the meaning of a variable and how to write algebraic expressions related to real-life situations. Also, the child starts framing and solving simple algebraic equations . This knowledge is very important for them as solving equations is like the heart of maths.

Ratios and percentages: Ratios and percentages are the topics that we come across in our daily lives. Thus, it is really important for the child to learn these and apply them in the real life wherever needed. These topics promote strong basics for solving commercial math-related problems in future.

Tips for Parents of Year 7 Maths

A year 7 child, being of aged 11 or 12 years, needs pushback from their teachers and/or parents. Here are a few tips for parents to make their child do great in their maths or any other subject.

• Recognize and appreciate their work though it is small/great.
• Do not worry much by yourself as this creates tension in your child's mind.
• Periodically keep asking them about what they have learned from school before you want to teach them something as sometimes the methods they have learned might differ from what you know.
• Do not solve everything by yourselves for them. First, ask them to try and then assist them however it is needed.
• Do not tell them that anything is too hard or too easy.

FAQs on Year 7 Maths

What do you learn in year 7 maths.

The year 7 maths is aligned with the following concepts:

• Numbers and Fractions
• Lines and Angles
• Ratios and Percentages
• Triangles and Quadrilaterals
• Areas and Perimeters of 2D shapes
• Expressions and Simple Equations

What are the Topics of Year 7 Maths?

The important topics of year 7 maths are numbers, fractions, properties of angles, areas, and perimeters, and introduction to algebra . These topics lay a strong base for the child's math learning.

How Can I help my Year 7 With Maths?

You can help your child's year 7 maths in the following ways:

• Download and give them some worksheets. Keep in mind that the worksheets should vary from basic to advanced level.
• Do not solve the math questions by yourself every time. Let them solve it first. Don't worry if there are mistakes. You can correct them once they are done. You should slowly see a drop in the number of mistakes.
• You can take the help of online tutoring platforms (like Cuemath.com ) if you are unable to help them with maths.
• Never tell them that maths is going to be harder from year 7 onwards.

Is Year 7 Maths Hard?

No, it is not hard. Year 7 maths has essential foundation topics of many math topics such as algebra, percentages, and angles. The key to making these topics easy is to learn from the basics: read the concept, look at the solved examples, and then try solving the questions. Take the help of your parent/teacher wherever required without piling up your doubts.

Is Algebra in Year 7 Maths?

Yes, algebra is introduced in year 7 where the child starts to see variables and use them to represent different scenarios of real life. Also, they are made to solve simple equations in algebra with a few steps.

What are Some Tips and Tricks to Solve Year 7 Maths Easily?

To solve year 7 maths easily, first read the concept. Watch relevant videos over the internet if needed. Then start looking at the solved examples and then solve the same examples on your own. Then finally, start solving the exercise questions. Summarize the entire chapter on a sheet of paper and file it. Write the list of all formulas you encounter on a formula sheet and keep revising them. Have a note of the problems that you felt were difficult while solving and keep solving them now and then. By following these tips and tricks you will excel in maths.

Resourceaholic

Ideas and resources for teaching secondary school mathematics

• Blog Archive

30 August 2018

Year 7 maths activities.

7 comments:

I can't tell you how many times you've posted a set of resources which are exactly what I need for the following week :D Also a great reminder of the awesome Colin Foster's activities. Thanks for all the hard work you put in - it's very much appreciated!

Thank you! I'm so pleased it's helpful.

Thank you :-)

These are great! The link to the number mazes task appears to be broken however. Any idea where I could find an alternative copy of these?

Hi. Frustratingly, it looks like all of Erich Friedman's puzzles have now been removed from the Stetson website, so I will remove this activity from the blog post. But if you still want to use them, I did download some (but not all) last year: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mV1s6550uQacr1IMqRMLeM5_F2Btw9xm/view?usp=sharing

If you would like something a bit different for Year 7 to consolidate multiplication why not check out my workshop on the slide rule presented at #mathsconf26 (at 13:56mins to 23:31mins). https://completemaths.com/mathsconf/26. They'll learn something about the slide rule and practise multiplication at the same time. Does require them to be able to fold paper in half accurately! I know you love the slide rule. Thank you for another great Gems post. Jenny

Year 7 maths worksheets pdf | year 7 worksheets

Year 7 maths worksheets pdf | year 7 worksheets | Free printable math worksheets for year seven. Each sheet is a test paper that can used to test just about any math skill. Hit the print button and start practicing.

Add money printable math worksheet

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Addition circle drill

Addition circle drill printable math worksheet

Addition of 3 numbers printable math worksheet

Addition of 4 numbers printable math worksheet

Addition up to hundred thousands printable math worksheet

Addition up to millions printable math worksheet

Addition with regrouping printable math worksheet

Algebra evaluating expressions printable math worksheet

Algebra number problems

Algebra number problems printable math worksheet

Algebra solving for the variable

Algebra solving for the variable printable math worksheet

Pre algebra addition equations

Pre algebra addition equations printable math worksheet

Pre algebra equations

Pre algebra equations printable math worksheet

Add 3 decimals

Add 3 decimals printable math worksheet

Addition of decimals

Addition of decimals printable math worksheet

Algebra decimals

Algebra decimals printable math worksheet

Compare decimals

Compare decimals printable math worksheet

Convert fractions to decimals

Convert fractions to decimals printable math worksheet

Decimal patterns

Decimal patterns printable math worksheet

Illustrated decimal exercise

Illustrated decimal exercise printable math worksheet

Multiply decimals

Multiply decimals printable math worksheet

Round up decimals

Round up decimals printable math worksheet

Subtraction with decimals

Subtraction with decimals printable math worksheet

Basic long division

Basic long division printable math worksheet

Divide 2 by 1 digit numbers

Divide 2 by 1 digit numbers printable math worksheet

Divide 3 by 1 digit numbers

Divide 3 by 1 digit numbers printable math worksheet

Division circle drill

Division circle drill printable math worksheet

Division match up exercise

Division match up exercise printable math worksheet

Division of whole numbers by fractions

Division of whole numbers by fractions printable math worksheet

Division table drill

Division table drill printable math worksheet

Long division

Long division printable math worksheet

Long division with remainder

Long division with remainder printable math worksheet

Exponents to 3rd power

Exponents to 3rd power printable math worksheet

Exponents to 4th power

Exponents to 4th power printable math worksheet

Exponents to second power

Exponents to second power printable math worksheet

Addition of fractions

Addition of fractions printable math worksheet

Addition of mixed fractions

Addition of mixed fractions printable math worksheet

Division of fractions

Division of fractions printable math worksheet

Division of mixed fractions

Division of mixed fractions printable math worksheet

Equivalent fractions

Equivalent fractions printable math worksheet

Fraction of numbers

Fraction of numbers printable math worksheet

Fractions withdots

Fractions withdots printable math worksheet

Multiplication of mixed fractions

Multiplication of mixed fractions printable math worksheet

Simplify fractions

Simplify fractions printable math worksheet

Subtraction of fractions

Subtraction of fractions printable math worksheet

Subtraction of mixed fractions

Subtraction of mixed fractions printable math worksheet

Area of circles

Area of circles printable math worksheet

Area of circles 2

Area of circles 2 printable math worksheet

Circumference of circles

Circumference of circles printable math worksheet

Geometry identifying segments

Geometry identifying segments printable math worksheet

Measure angles with a protractor

Measure angles with a protractor printable math worksheet

Perimeter and area of complex shapes

Perimeter and area of complex shapes printable math worksheet

Perimeter and area of l shapes

Perimeter and area of l shapes printable math worksheet

Perimeter and area of rectangles

Perimeter and area of rectangles printable math worksheet

Polygons sides vertices

Polygons sides vertices printable math worksheet

Pythagorean theorem

Pythagorean theorem printable math worksheet

Shapes printable math worksheet

Solid and planar figures

Solid and planar figures printable math worksheet

Symmetry with shapes

Symmetry with shapes printable math worksheet

Symmetry 2 printable math worksheet

Symmetry with pictures

Symmetry with pictures printable math worksheet

Triangles circles cubes areas

Triangles circles cubes areas printable math worksheet

Bar and linear graphs practice sheet

Bar and linear graphs practice sheet printable math worksheet

Coordinates

Coordinates printable math worksheet

Freedom of setting graph

Freedom of setting graph printable math worksheet

Graph and data

Graph and data printable math worksheet

Graphs locate in x y

Graphs locate in x y printable math worksheet

Linear graphs

Linear graphs printable math worksheet

Ploting graphs

Ploting graphs printable math worksheet

Tables printable math worksheet

Venn diagrams

Venn diagrams printable math worksheet

Venn diagrams 2

Venn diagrams 2 printable math worksheet

X y coordinate practice sheet

X y coordinate practice sheet printable math worksheet

Integers subtraction circle drill

Integers subtraction circle drill printable math worksheet

Converting scales mm cm ft yd

Converting scales mm cm ft yd printable math worksheet

Measure angles

Measure angles printable math worksheet

Measure rectangles and calculate the area

Measure rectangles and calculate the area printable math worksheet

Meaurements thermometer

Meaurements thermometer printable math worksheet

Mix operations

Mix operations printable math worksheet

Add coins usd

Add coins usd printable math worksheet

Addition of money

Addition of money printable math worksheet

Counting and adding coins usd

Counting and adding coins usd printable math worksheet

Expressing money values

Expressing money values printable math worksheet

Money buying

Money buying printable math worksheet

Money shopping

Money shopping printable math worksheet

Money shopping2

Money shopping2 printable math worksheet

Shopping printable math worksheet

Multiplication by 1 digit numbers

Multiplication by 1 digit numbers printable math worksheet

Multiplication by 2 digit numbers

Multiplication by 2 digit numbers printable math worksheet

Multiplication match up

Multiplication match up printable math worksheet

Multiplication of fractions

Multiplication of fractions printable math worksheet

Multiplication table drill

Multiplication table drill printable math worksheet

Multiplication with money values

Multiplication with money values printable math worksheet

Factors of numbers

Factors of numbers printable math worksheet

Highest common factor

Highest common factor printable math worksheet

Lowest common multiple

Lowest common multiple printable math worksheet

Ordering numbers

Ordering numbers printable math worksheet

Place value of to millions

Place value of to millions printable math worksheet

Prime numbers

Prime numbers printable math worksheet

Roman to arabic numerals

Roman to arabic numerals printable math worksheet

Spelling numbers

Spelling numbers printable math worksheet

Spelling numbers 2

Spelling numbers 2 printable math worksheet

Square roots

Square roots printable math worksheet

Patterns easy

Patterns easy printable math worksheet

Patterns harder

Patterns harder printable math worksheet

Convert ratios to percents fractions

Convert ratios to percents fractions printable math worksheet

Percentage of money

Percentage of money printable math worksheet

Percentage of numbers

Percentage of numbers printable math worksheet

Percentage of numbers round figures

Percentage of numbers round figures printable math worksheet

Subtract up to hundred thousands

Subtract up to hundred thousands printable math worksheet

Subtract up to millions

Subtract up to millions printable math worksheet

Subtraction circle drill

Subtraction circle drill printable math worksheet

Subtraction table drill

Subtraction table drill printable math worksheet

Table sheet 1

Table sheet 1 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 10

Table sheet 10 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 11

Table sheet 11 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 2

Table sheet 2 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 3

Table sheet 3 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 4

Table sheet 4 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 5

Table sheet 5 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 6

Table sheet 6 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 7

Table sheet 7 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 8

Table sheet 8 printable math worksheet

Table sheet 9

Table sheet 9 printable math worksheet

Telling time am pm

Telling time am pm printable math worksheet

Telling time roman numeral clocks

Telling time roman numeral clocks printable math worksheet

Time past on clocks

Time past on clocks printable math worksheet

People often search for references on topics that are difficult to understand, especially young students. It is particularly true for math, commonly known as one of the most challenging subjects to learn. With worksheets like the year 7 maths worksheets pdf , teachers and parents alike can boost their students' learning in many math areas. It includes simple operations, reading the clock, money, counting, fractions, decimals, percent, proportions, percentages, factoring, calculations, expressions, arithmetic, square roots, and more. The worksheets are easy to use with a PDF file format and are viewable on any device. They are also easy to adapt to whatever activity is needed, whether as supplementary activity in the classroom, as homework, or as a revision for a primary school quiz. So, if you are looking for ways to improve the way your Year 7 students learn, then these math worksheets will help. They fit the learning requirements for Year 7, so they will surely increase the learning ability of your students. The printable year 7 maths worksheets we offer herein are actually pdf test sheets each having an answer key attached to the second page. Each sheet can be printed out in one click on a home printer. For schools, there is no limit to the number of copies that can be printed out each time. Simply print out these sheets and take to your class; students can place their names at the top of each copy. At the end of the day, there is an answer key which can be used as a reference in the end. Featuring are the following topics:

• Year 7 word problems – Word problems enable students to review just about any math skill. For example if you learn addition of numbers, you can apply these skills in word problems that require addition. The same goes for multiplication; you can apply multiplication skills in resolving several word problems. There are also situations in which students will have to use several operations (mixed operations) to solve word problems; that requires some knowledge of bidmas.
• Algebra questions year 7 – This is a commonly studied topic at this level. There are several skills that come under algebra like pre-algebra, linear equations, inequalities, simultaneous equations, angles, algebraic expressions, number progressions and patterns and more. Children simply have to select the algebra topic of interest and start testing their skills. Check out all the year 7 algebra worksheets pdf pack.
• Bidmas questions year 7 - BIDMAS stands for Brackets, Indices, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction. For children to solve mixed operation problems correctly, they need to figure out how to follow this order. Failing to follow the bidmas order will lead to incorrect results in most cases.
• Year 7 angles worksheet – This topic is part of geometry; students will be asked to find missing angles in shapes. For example, with the sum of angles in a triangle being 360 degrees, students may be given two angles and asked to find the missing angle. To find the missing angle in this situation requires you to master solving linear equations which is part of algebra. The rules are pretty simple and straightforward.
• Year 7 geometry worksheets – This section is super charged with test sheets on varied topics. Featuring are the Pythagorean Theorem worksheets for year 7. Here children are required to find the missing side of a right angle triangle. To do this they have to apply the formula which states that the base squared, added to the height squared is equal to the length of the hypotenuse squared. To find these missing sides, students are required to make it the subject of the formula and find the square root of the outcome. Students are also required to find the volume of a cylinder, the area of circles, rectangles, complex figures and more. Finding the area of specific math shapes require students to know their formula by heart and apply it where necessary. Students will also solve geometry problems related to supplementary and complementary angles, measuring the lengths of items in real life and more. Check out our rich collection of year 7 geometry worksheets.  

These worksheets are for 11 years and 12 years old and correspond to the key stage 3 of the U.K. system of education. Teachers and parents can use these worksheets to test the progress of their kids / students. In the classroom, they can be used as individual test sheets to evaluate the progress of students. At home, parents can use these sheets to revise with their children in an easy way and the answer keys come in handy when the topics get complex. Each worksheet contains about 10 to 20 questions, each reflecting a different skill or scenario to test. We are in constant pursuit of excellence and we keep updating the contents of our website. Keep coming back for more and please share in your networks.

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Three ways to solve the problem of Year 7 maths

In mathematics, it is often noted that pupils suffer a “dip” in their knowledge from Year 6 to Year 7. Secondary teachers often remark that pupils who scored well on key stage 2 Sats don’t know how to do some of the mathematics that their score implies they should be able to do.

If this is true (and this does need to be questioned) then it implies two big questions:

1) Why is it happening?

2) What do we do about it?

Quick read:  Could this be the answer to the  Stem teacher shortage ?

Quick listen:  The specific benefits of  generalising about maths

Want to know more?  ‘Let’s take  maths anxiety  out of the equation’

One possible answer to the first question is that it isn’t really happening, but it can appear as if it is early on. 

Anxiety over school transition

If we consider how disorientating the change of school is, amid all the things happening both externally and internally at the age when pupils move into Year 7, it is possibly not surprising that in the first few weeks of transition pupils are not on their “A game”. It may well be that after they have settled in and feel comfortable enough to focus on the mathematics, pupils’ knowledge resurfaces. 

The negative effects of anxiety on academic performance have been well established, and the transition from primary to secondary is likely to be a very anxious time for pupils. 

This would also affect pupils’ ability to learn new things in their new school. The cognitive load associated with feeling like you have to be “on top of” all of the changes may well completely overwhelm pupils’ working memory, making it virtually impossible for them to actively learn much of anything new until the changes become more routine.

The wrong maths content?

Another factor in this may be aspects of the KS2 curriculum. In his paper “Teaching Mathematics at Secondary Level” , eminent mathematics professional Tony Gardiner identifies two apparent issues with the KS2 curriculum that may then affect performance with concepts that also appear in KS3. These are:

A significant amount of material has been included at key stage 2 in a way that is likely to prove developmentally inappropriate;

Some of the listed topics that are entirely appropriate in Year 5 and 6 have been specified rather poorly.  

In Gardiner’s view, this makes it likely that, through no fault of the teachers in Year 5 and 6, many pupils entering KS3 will have a somewhat superficial grasp of some key ideas from KS2.

Potential solutions

An obvious solution to this is to remove some content from KS2, and use the space created to specify properly the more appropriate concepts.

 Of course, schools can find it difficult to make this decision unilaterally, with the pressures of KS2 Sats and the inherent judgements that this might bring about. In reality, this would likely require a change in the government curriculum policy before all schools with KS2 pupils felt comfortable in approaching their teaching in this way.

An alternative is to ensure proper consolidation of these ideas early on in KS3. This actually serves the dual purpose of reducing anxiety in pupils (as they are working with maths they already feel relatively comfortable and familiar with) as well as removing the need for them to learn new things when their brains are simply not ready to cope with it following all of the upheaval.

If we accept this alternative, then we might well wonder, what are the mathematical ideas that need to form the basis of this consolidation time? 

Focus areas

Again, the inimitable Tony Gardiner has a possible answer. In the same publication, Tony suggests that the following are examples of “topics which may have been ‘covered’ at Key Stage 2, but which will need serious attention in Years 7 and 8”.

The extension of place value to decimals

The arithmetic of decimals

Work with measures - especially compound measures

The arithmetic of fractions

Ratio and proportion

The use of negative numbers

Work with coordinates in all four quadrants

Simple algebra  

As a teacher of mathematics, I can recognise that many of the ideas listed above are precisely those that can cause pupils problems when they arrive at secondary school.

Plan for Year 7

So what is my plan for Y7? 

1. Reduce anxiety

Use time on both sides of the holiday to set the scene for what is to come - if pupils are suffering anxiety due to the transition, then trying to make them feel as prepared and comfortable as possible for what they will encounter in maths lessons will definitely help. 

Try and make sure that maths is on the timetable for any transition days that your school hosts for its arriving pupils on either side of the holiday, and make sure the lessons done in those times do reflect what will be the norm for their maths lessons when new learning starts (while simultaneously trying to soften the impact of any new ways of working so that you don’t cause more anxiety). 

It is also really worthwhile considering devoting some time to actually explicitly teaching routines and expectations - in my department we have a standard “expectations” lesson that will introduce pupils to the standard experiences they will get in most maths lessons, but that takes them through this in a way that is not associated to new learning. 

This might be particularly helpful for pupils with SEND whose emotional state might be even more heightened than their peers if they rely on “knowing the rules” to help them manage their classroom experience.

2. Delay baseline assessments

Wait before you baseline pupils - if you are in a school that routinely sets pupils on entry, you may as well actually use their KS2 Sats scores. Doing a baseline in the first few days and then using this to set could well be less accurate, despite many people thinking the opposite.

If performance is being upset by anxiety around a new school, then your baseline could well be giving you false results. Even if you do normally set the pupils late in the year, or teach mixed ability for the whole of year 7, try and wait until pupils have settled into the routine of your school before you attempt to do any sort of baseline test that is designed to discriminate based on performance.

In my school, we teach mixed ability in Year 7, but we do use a baseline test to see if there are pupils who would benefit from intervention in numerosity, or, conversely, if there are pupils whose Sats might suggest they do whereas, in fact, they don’t. 

For next year I will be changing this practice so that early intervention is planned around KS2 Sats question level analysis, and then the baseline test won’t be conducted until the end of the first unit.

3. Spend the early time consolidating

I know some people like to start Year 7 with something completely new. They want Year 7 or “big school” maths to feel very different to the maths that pupils were exposed to at primary school. 

This may well work for some - those who can adjust to the change in environment, teacher and status quickly or who can take these things in their stride. 

My concern with this would be those who are so overwhelmed by all the change, that the last thing they need is something else that looks different: “Not even maths is the same!” 

Given what Gardiner says about topics from KS2 that will need attention in KS3, I think there is ample scope to begin Year 7 with a focus on consolidation and renewal, rather than new content.

This doesn’t mean it has to be “the same old boring stuff” for pupils who are ready to move on. In my school, we start Year 7 by revisiting integer arithmetic, in particular revisiting the four operations and laws of arithmetic before extending to negative integers. 

However, while doing this we introduce thinking about numbers and arithmetic in ways pupils haven’t considered before. We do things like explicitly look at the difference between “Steve had 10 sweets and gave Jemma 4, how many does Steve have left?” and “Steve has 10 sweets and Jemma has 4, how many more does Steve have?”. 

The idea here is not to practise answering questions like this (although it does allow us to pick up if any pupil does still have difficulty with number bonds to 10), but rather to motivate two different ways of seeing subtraction. This serves the dual purpose that the ideas are very familiar to pupils and we are still able to use what we are doing to push those pupils who are ready for more to think differently about what they already know. 

Over the course of Year 7 and 8 we look at everything on Gardiner’s list, either explicitly or at least as a main idea in a different topic (for example, we use coordinates in four quadrants to look at graphing formulae, spending at least an hour just focusing on the plotting of the coordinates generated by substitution into a formula).

Peter Mattock is head of maths at an 11-16 school in Leicestershire and author of  Visible Maths

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How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall

Elon musk’s factory in china saved his company and made him ultrarich. now, it may backfire..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Katrin Bennhold. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, the story of how China gave Tesla a lifeline that saved the company — and how that lifeline has now given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game. My colleague, Mara Hvistendahl, explains.

It’s Tuesday, April 9.

So, Mara, you’ve spent the past four months investigating Elon Musk and his ties to China through his company, Tesla. Tell us why.

Well, a lot of American companies are heavily invested in China, but Tesla’s kind of special. As my colleagues and I started talking to sources, we realized that many people felt that China played a crucial role in rescuing the company at a critical moment when it was on the brink of failure and that China helps account for Tesla’s success, for making it the most valuable car company in the world today, and for making Elon Musk ultra rich.

That’s super intriguing. So maybe take us back to the beginning. When does the story start?

So the story starts in the mid 2010s. Tesla had been this company that had all this hype around it. But —

A lot of people were shocked by Tesla’s earnings report. Not only did they make a lot less money than expected, they’re also making a lot less cars.

Tesla was struggling.

The delivery of the Model 3 has been delayed yet again.

Tesla engineers are saying 40 percent of the parts made at the Fremont factory need reworking.

At the time, they made their cars in Fremont, California, and they were facing production delays.

Tesla is confirming that Cal/OSHA is investigating the company over concerns over workplace safety.

Elon Musk has instituted a kind of famously grueling work culture at the factory, and that did not go over well with California labor law.

The federal government now has four active investigations involving Tesla.

They were clashing with regulators.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a second crash involving Tesla’s autopilot system.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk — friends are really concerned about him. That’s what Musk told “The New York Times.”

And by 2018, he was having all of these crises.

According to “The Times,” Musk choked up multiple times and struggled to maintain his composure during an hour-long interview about turmoil at his electric car company, Tesla.

So all of this kind of converged to put immense pressure on him to do something.

And where does China come in?

Well, setting up a factory in China, in a way, would solve some of these problems for Musk. Labor costs were lower. Workers couldn’t unionize there. China provided access to this steady supply of cheaper parts. So Elon Musk was set on going to China. But first, Tesla and Musk wanted to change a key policy in China.

Hmm, what kind of policy?

So they wanted China to adopt a policy that was aimed at lowering car emissions. And the idea was that it would be modeled after a similar policy in California that had benefited Tesla there.

OK, so explain what that policy actually did. And how did it benefit Tesla?

So California had this system called the Zero-Emission Vehicle program. And that was designed to encourage companies to make cleaner cars, including electric vehicles. And they did that by setting pollution targets. So companies that made a lot of clean cars got credits. And then companies that failed to meet those targets, that produced too many gas-guzzling cars, would have to buy credits from the cleaner companies.

So California is trying to incentivize companies to make cleaner cars by forcing the traditional carmakers to pay cleaner car makers, which basically means dirtier car makers are effectively subsidizing cleaner cars.

Yes, that’s right. And Tesla, as a company that came along just making EVs, profited immensely from this system. And in its early years, when Tesla was really struggling to stay afloat, the money that it earned from selling credits in California to polluting car companies were absolutely crucial, so much so that the company structured a lot of its lobbying efforts around this system, around preserving these credits. And we talked to a former regulator who said as much.

How much money are we talking about here?

So from 2008, when Tesla unveiled its first car, up until the end of last year, Tesla made almost $4 billion by selling credits in California.

Wow. So Musk basically wants China to recreate this California-style program, which was incredibly lucrative for Tesla, there. And they’re basically holding that up as a condition to their building a factory in China.

Right. And at this point in the story, an interesting alliance emerges. Because it wasn’t just Tesla that wanted this emissions program in China. It was also environmentalists from California who had seen the success of the program up close in their own state.

If you go back to that period, to the early 2010s, I was living in China at the time in Beijing and Shanghai. And it was incredibly polluted. We called it airpocalypse at times. I had my first child in China at that point. And as soon as it was safe to put a baby mask on her, we put a little baby mask on her. There were days where people just would try to avoid going outside because it was so polluted. And some of the pollution was actually wafting across the Pacific Ocean to California.

Wow, so California is experiencing that Chinese air pollution firsthand and, in a way, has a direct stake in lowering it.

That’s right. So Governor Jerry Brown, for example — this became kind of his signature issue, was working with China to clean up the environment, in part by exporting this emission scheme. It was also an era of a lot more US-China cooperation. China was seen as absolutely crucial to combating climate change.

So you had all these groups working to get this California emissions scheme exported to China — and the governor’s office and environmental groups and Tesla. And it worked. In 2017, China did adopt a system that was modeled after California’s.

It’s pretty incredible. So California basically exports its emissions-trading system to China, which I imagine at the time was a big win for Californian environmentalists. But it was also a big win for Tesla.

It was definitely a big win for Tesla. And we know that in just a few years Tesla, made almost $1 billion from the emissions-trading program he helped lobby for in China.

So Elon Musk goes on, builds a factory in China. And he does so in Shanghai, where he builds a close relationship with the top official in the city, who actually is now the number-two official in all of China, Li Qiang.

So according to Chinese state media, Elon Musk actually proposed building the factory in two years, which would be fast. And Li came back and proposed that they do it in one year, which — things go up really quickly in China. But even for China, this is incredibly fast. And they broke ground on the factory in January 2019. And by the end of the year, cars were rolling off the line. So then in January 2020, Musk was able to get up on stage in Shanghai and unveil the first Chinese-made Teslas.

Really want to thank the Tesla team and the government officials that have been really helpful in making this happen.

Next to him on stage is Tesla’s top lobbyist who helped push through some of these changes.

Thank you. Yeah, everybody can tell Elon’s super, super happy today.

[SPEAKING CHINESE]

And she says —

Music, please.

Cue the music. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

And he actually broke into dance. He was so happy, a kind of awkward dance.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

And what is the factory like?

The Shanghai factory is huge. 20,000 people work there. Tesla’s factories around the world tend to be pretty large, but the Shanghai workers work more shifts. And when Tesla set up in China, Chinese banks ended up offering Tesla $1.5 billion in low-interest loans. They got a preferential tax rate in Shanghai.

This deal was so generous that one auto industry official we talked to said that a government minister had actually lamented that they were giving Tesla too much. And it is an incredibly productive factory. It’s now the flagship export factory for Tesla.

So it opens in late 2019. And that’s, of course, the time when the pandemic hits.

Yes. I mean, you might think that this is really poor timing for Elon Musk. But it didn’t quite turn out that way. In fact, Tesla’s factory in Shanghai was closed for only around two weeks, whereas the factory in Fremont was closed for around two months.

That’s a big difference.

Yes, and it really, really mattered to Elon Musk. If you can think back to 2020, you might recall that he was railing against California politicians for closing his factory. In China, the factory stayed open. Workers were working around the clock. And Elon Musk said on a podcast —

China rocks, in my opinion.

— China rocks.

There’s a lot of smart, hardworking people. And they’re not entitled. They’re not complacent, whereas I see —

We’ve seen a lot of momentum and enthusiasm for electric vehicles, stocks, and Tesla certainly leading the charge.

Tesla’s stock price kept going up.

Tesla has become just the fifth company to reach a trillion-dollar valuation. The massive valuation happened after Tesla’s stock price hit an all-time high of more than $1,000.

So this company that had just a few years earlier been on the brink of failure, looking to China for a lifeline, was suddenly riding high. And —

Tesla is now the most valuable car company in the world. It’s worth more than General Motors, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler.

By the summer, it had become the most valuable car company in the world.

Guess what? Elon Musk is now the world’s richest man.

“Forbes” says he’s worth more than $255 billion.

And Elon Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. And in the following year, he became the wealthiest man in the world.

So you have this emission trading system, which we discussed and which, in part, thanks to Tesla, is now established in China. It’s bringing in money to Tesla. And now this Shanghai factory is continuing to produce cars for Tesla in the middle of the pandemic. So China really paid off for Tesla. But what was in it for China?

Well, China wasn’t doing this for charity.

What Chinese leaders really wanted was to turn their fledgling electric vehicle industry into a global powerhouse. And they figured that Tesla was the ticket to get there. And that’s precisely what happened.

We’ll be right back.

So, Mara, you’ve just told us the story of how Elon Musk used China to turn Tesla into the biggest car maker in the world and himself — at one point — into the richest man in the world. Now I want to understand the other side of this story. How did China use Tesla?

Well, Tesla basically became a catfish for China’s EV industry.

A catfish, what do you mean by that?

It’s a term from the business world. And, essentially, it means a super aggressive fish that makes the other fish in the pond swim faster. And by bringing in this super competitive, aggressive foreign company into China, which at that point had these fledgling EV companies, Chinese leaders hoped to spur the upstart Chinese EV makers to up their game.

So you’re saying that at this point, China actually already had a number of smaller EV companies, which many people in the West may not even be aware of, these smaller fish in the pond that you were referring to.

Yes, there were a lot of them. They were often locally based. Like, one would be strong in one city, and one would be strong in another city. And Chinese leaders saw that they needed to become more competitive in order to thrive.

And China had tried for decades to build up this traditional car industry by bringing in foreign companies to set up joint ventures. They had really had their sights set on building a strong car industry, and it didn’t really work. I mean, how many traditional Chinese car company brands can you name?

Exactly none.

Yeah, right. So going back to the aughts and the 2010s, they had this advantage that many Chinese hadn’t yet been hooked on gas-guzzling cars. There were still many people who were buying their first car ever. So officials had all these levers they could pull to try to encourage or try to push people’s behavior in a certain direction.

And their idea was to try to ensure that when people went to buy their first car, it would be an EV — and not just an EV but, hopefully, a Chinese EV. So they did things like — at the time, just a license plate for your car could cost an exorbitant amount of money and be difficult to get. And so they made license plates for electric vehicles free. So there were all these preferential policies that were unveiled to nudge people toward buying EVs.

So that’s fascinating. So China is incentivizing consumers to buy EV cars and incentivizing also the whole industry to get its act together by chucking this big American company in the mix and hoping that it will increase competitiveness. What I’m particularly struck by, Mara, in what you said is the concept of leapfrogging over the conventional combustion engine phase, which took us decades to live through. We’re still living in it, in many ways, in the West.

But listening to you, it sounds a little bit like China wasn’t really thinking about this transition to EVs as an environmental policy. It sounds like they were doing this more from an industrial-policy perspective.

Right. The environment and the horrible era at the time was a factor, but it was a pretty minor factor, according to people who were privy to the policy discussions. The more significant factor was industrial policy and an interest in building up a competitive sphere.

So China now wants to become a leader in the global EV sector, and it wants to use Tesla to get there. What does that actually look like?

Well, you need sophisticated suppliers to make the component parts of electric vehicles. And just by being in China, Tesla helped spur the development of several suppliers. Like, for example, the battery is a crucial piece of any EV.

And Tesla, with a fair amount of encouragement — and also various levers from the Chinese government — became a customer of a battery maker called CATL, a homegrown Chinese battery maker. And they have become very close to Tesla and have even set up a factory near Teslas in Shanghai. And today, with Tesla’s business — and, of course, with the business of some other companies — CATL is the biggest battery maker in the world.

But beyond just stimulating the growth of suppliers, Tesla also made these other fish in the pond swim faster. And the biggest Chinese EV company to come out of that period is one called BYD. It’s short for Build Your Dreams.

We are BYD. You’ve probably never heard of us.

From battery maker to the biggest electric vehicle or EV manufacturer in China.

They’ve got a lot of models. They’ve got a lot of discounts. They’ve got a lot of market growth.

China’s biggest EV maker just overtook Tesla in terms of worldwide sales.

BYD 10, Chinese automobile redefined.

I’ve actually started seeing that brand on the streets here in Europe recently, especially in Germany, where my brother actually used to lease a Tesla and now leases a BYD.

Does he like it?

He does. Although he did, to be fair, say that he misses the luxury of the Tesla, but it just became too expensive, really.

The price point is a huge reason that BYD is increasingly giving Tesla a run for its money. Years ago, back in 2011 —

Although there’s competitors now ramping up. And, as you’re familiar with, BYD, which is also —

— Elon Musk actually mocked their cars.

— electric vehicles, here he is trying to compete. Why do you laugh?

He asked an interviewer —

Have you seen their car?

I have seen their car, yes.

— have you seen their cars? Sort of suggesting, like, they’re no competition for us.

You don’t see them at all as a competitor?

Why is that? I mean, they offer a lower price point.

I don’t think they have a great product. I think their focus is — and rightly should be — on making sure they don’t die in China.

But they have been steadily improving. They’ve been in the EV space for a while, but they really started improving a few years ago, once Tesla came on the scene. That was due to a number of factors, not entirely because of Tesla. But Tesla played a role in helping train up talent in China. One former Tesla employee who worked at the company as they were getting set up in China told me that most of the employees who were at the company at the time now work for Chinese competitors.

So they have really played this important role in the EV ecosystem.

And you mentioned the price advantage. So just for comparison, what does an average BYD sell for compared to a more affordable Tesla car?

So BYD has an ultra-cheap model called the Seagull that sells for around $10,000 now in China, whereas Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys in China sell for more than twice that.

Wow. How’s BYD able to sell EVs at these much lower prices?

Well, the Seagull is really just a simpler car. It has less range than a Tesla. It lacks some safety measures. But BYD has this other crucial advantage, which is that they’re vertically integrated. Like, they control many aspects of the supply chain, up and down the supply chain. When you look at the battery level, they make batteries. But they even own the mines where lithium is mined for the batteries.

And they recently launched a fleet of ships. So they actually operate the boats that are sending their cars to Europe or other parts of the world.

So BYD is basically cutting out the middleman on all these aspects of the supply chain, and that’s how they can undercut other car makers on price.

Yeah. They’ve cut out the middleman, and they’ve cut out the shipping company and almost everything else.

So how is BYD doing now as a company compared to Tesla?

In terms of market cap, they’re still much smaller than Tesla. But, crucially, they overtook Tesla in sales in the last quarter of last year.

Yeah, that was a huge milestone. Tesla still dominates in the European market, which is a very important market for EVs. But BYD is starting to export there. And Europe traditionally is kind of automotive powerhouse, and the companies and government officials there are very, very concerned. I interviewed the French finance minister, and he told me that China has a five - to seven-year head start on Europe when it comes to EVs.

Wow. And what has Elon Musk said about this incredible rise of BYD in recent years? Do you think he anticipated that Tesla’s entry into the Chinese market could end up building up its own competition?

Well, I can’t get inside his head, and he did not respond to our questions. But —

The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world.

— he has certainly changed his tune. So, remember, he was joking about BYD some years ago.

Yeah, he’s not joking anymore.

I think they will have significant success.

He had dismissed Chinese EV makers. He now appears increasingly concerned about these new competitors —

Frankly, I think if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.

— to the point that on an earnings call in January, he all but endorsed the use of trade barriers against them.

They’re extremely good.

I think it’s so interesting, in a way — of course, with perfect hindsight — the kind of maybe complacency or naivete with which he may not have anticipated this turn of events. And in some ways, he’s not alone, right? It speaks to something larger. Like, China, for a long time, was seen as kind of the sweatshop or the manufacturer of the world — or perhaps as an export market for a lot of these Western companies. It certainly wasn’t putting out its own big brand names. It was making stuff for the brand names.

But recently, they have quite a lot of their own brand names. Everybody talks about TikTok. There’s Huawei. There’s WeChat, Lenovo. And now there is BYD. So China is becoming a leader in technology in certain areas. And I think that shift in some ways has happened. And a lot of Western companies — perhaps like Tesla — were kind of late to waking up to that.

Right. Tesla is looking fragile now. Their stock price dropped 30 percent in the first quarter of this year. And to a large degree, that is because of the threat of companies like BYD from China and the perception that Tesla’s position as number one in the market is no longer guaranteed.

So, Mara, all this raises a much bigger question for me, which is, who is going to own the future of EVs? And based on everything you’ve said so far, it seems like China owns the future of EVs. Is that right?

Well, possibly, but the jury is still out. Tesla is still far bigger for now. But there is this increasing fear that China owns the future of EVs. If you look at the US, there are already 25 percent tariffs on EVs from China. There’s talk of increasing them. The Commerce Department recently launched an investigation into data collection by electric vehicles from China.

So all of these factors are creating uncertainty around what could happen. And the European Union may also add new tariffs against Chinese-made cars. And China is an economic rival and a security rival and, in many ways, our main adversary. So this whole issue is intertwined with national security. And Tesla is really in the middle of it.

Right. So the sort of new Cold War that people are talking about between the US and China is, in a sense, the backdrop to this story. But on one level, what we’ve been talking about, it’s really a corporate story, an economic story that has this geopolitical backdrop. But it’s also very much an environmental story. So, regardless of how Elon Musk and Tesla fare in the end, is BYD’s rise and its ability to create high-quality and — perhaps more importantly — affordable EVs ultimately a good thing for the world?

If I think back on those years I spent living in Shanghai and Beijing when it was extremely polluted and there were days when you couldn’t go outside — I don’t think anyone wants to go back to that.

So it’s clear that EVs are the future and that they’re crucial to the green energy transition that we have to make. How exactly we get there is still unclear. But what is true is that China did just make that transition easier.

Mara, thank you so much.

Thank you, Katrin.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Millions of people across North America were waiting for their turn to experience a rare event on Monday. From Mexico —

Cuatro, tres, dos, uno.

— to Texas.

Awesome, just awesome.

We can see the corona really well. Oh, you can see —

[BACKGROUND CHATTER]

Oh, and we are falling into darkness right now. What an incredible sensation. And you are hearing and seeing the crowd of 15,000 gathered here in south Illinois.

Including “Daily” producers in New York.

It’s like the sky is almost —

— like a deep blue under the clouds.

Wait, look. It’s just —

Oh my god. The sun is disappearing. And it’s gone. Oh. Whoa.

All the way up to Canada.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m talking about.

The moon glided in front of the sun and obscured it entirely in a total solar eclipse, momentarily plunging the day into darkness.

It’s super exciting. It’s so amazing to see science in action like this.

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie with help from Rachelle Bonja. It was edited by Lisa Chow with help from Alexandra Leigh Young, fact checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Elisheba Ittoop, and Sophia Lanman and was engineered by Chris Wood.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m catching Katrin Bennhold. See you tomorrow.

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Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Mara Hvistendahl

Produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie

With Rachelle Bonja

Edited by Lisa Chow and Alexandra Leigh Young

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Diane Wong ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

When Elon Musk set up Tesla’s factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers — a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.

Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains why, now, that lifeline may have given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game.

On today’s episode

Mara Hvistendahl , an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also bound him to Beijing .

Mr. Musk helped create the Chinese electric vehicle industry. But he is now facing challenges there as well as scrutiny in the West over his reliance on China.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Mara Hvistendahl is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on Asia. More about Mara Hvistendahl

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