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April 2014
In this edition of the News you will find:
 Google Has Caught Up
Journals at Ashburton Primary
Documents Link Updated
Thirty-One
Tasks of the Month
Task 176, Steps
Task 179, Unseen Triangles
Please feel free to distribute this information.
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- Google Has Caught Up
Mathematics Centre has been at its new web address for only one month and already it is very easy to find.
- Enter Mathematics Centre into Google Search and we are already showing in the top five.
- Enter mathematicscentre.com into Google Search and the first page and half of displays link to various parts of the site.
Try it for yourself.
In part that swift 'rise to the top' is because Mathematics Centre is being used. The more traffic the more likely the site is ranked highly in searches. So, a big thank you for visiting. Moving the site was a bit of risk due to the possibility of teachers losing touch with its whereabouts, but your loyalty has made the transfer very smooth.
Please note that the previous version of Mathematics Centre hosted on the Black Douglas site has now been removed. Please check that all your bookmarks are changed so you don't receive File Not Found messages. However, Black Douglas continues to manage Mathematics Centre. Phone, fax and email contacts have not changed.
Google has been actively supporting Mathematics Centre in another way too. The search engine at mathematicscentre.com is powered by Google. Enter a search word into it and Google only searches within Mathematics Centre. A month ago it was turning up all sorts of responses, but the Google robots and spiders (that's tech talk apparently) have been silently busy indexing the site and our tests show the Site Search is returning extensive, reliable results.
It's a powerful tool to support your search for alternatives to text-based learning. We invite you to have a play. You can even use your smart phone!
- Journals at Ashburton Primary
When the school was being renovated someone found a set of tasks that had been languishing in the back of a storeroom. Julie Gilbert, Assistant Principal, who has heaps of experience in mathematics leadership, knew their value and immediately began supporting staff to re-introduce task-based investigations. The children responded well to their first lessons as you can see in the photographs recently added to the Recording & Publishing link. See the Link List below.
- Documents Link Updated
Mathematics Centre offers many documents to support you in constructing a Working Mathematically curriculum. Now it's even easier to find them and assess their value to you. Visit the Documents link (see Link List below) and you will be able to see something of the document before clicking on the image to reveal it in full, printable size. Everything from the Working Mathematically process through Task Centre support documents, to assessment documents to research papers.
- Tasks of the Month
Two new cameos this month.
The Task Cameo Content Finder has been updated to include these tasks.
- Steps is one of a family of tasks which use the digits 1 - 9. In this case the digits are arranged to make a staircase and the challenge is that each vertical and horizontal line has the same sum. The deeper challenge is to apply the mathematician's questions How many solutions are there? and How do you know you have found them all?
- Unseen Triangles is one of a family of algebra tasks that begin with a visual/kinaesthetic pattern. In this case the students build a range of 'mountain peaks' using matches or other sticks so the only the front one is fully seen and all the others are partially seen. Where there is a visual pattern, there will be a number pattern. Generalising the number pattern is the algebra and the problem leads from there into more or less every aspect of textbook linear algebra.
 
Click a photo to access its cameo, or access all current cameos through the Link List below.
Keep smiling,
Doug.
Link List
- Did you miss the Previous News?
If so you missed information about:
- mathematicscentre.com
- Calculating Changes Members
- Maths Task Camp in New Hampshire
- What The People Say
- Documents You Might Use
- Iceberg Information about two Tasks of the Month
(Tasks 193, 234)
- ...and more...
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Did You Know?
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Previous News
February 2014
Dec. 2013 / Jan. 2014 ... November 2013 ... October 2013 ... September 2013 ... August 2013
July 2013 ... June 2013 ... May 2013 ... March 2013 ... February 2013
Dec. 2012 / Jan. 2013 ... November 2012 ... October 2012 ... September 2012 ... August 2012
June/July 2012 ... May 2012 ... April 2012 ... March 2012 ... February 2012 ... January 2012
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Continue exploring our history back to July 1992 through the Sense of History link.
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