News

• Crossing The River 1

  Crossing the river - it is the best introduction to algebra that I know.

  One response when asked to name favourite Maths300 lessons in a 2013 survey of Maths300 members. It reminded me of this page from Maths300 ETuTE. It begins:
  
  Click the image to read/print the full page as a PDF.

  For this teacher - and others in the professional development session - that question didn't need to be answered. The tutorial goes on to raise the question:

  What would the curriculum look like - how would it 'feel' to students and teachers - if it were constructed around Pivot Problems such as this which could be visited and revisited to 'milk' their richness?

  • Mathematics Task Centre offers a treasury of 240⁺ rich problems in a hands-on form supported by Task Cameos.
  • About half of the 180⁺ Maths300 lessons are built on the whole class investigation life of these tasks.
  • Every task and every Maths300 lesson includes a professional learning aspect.
  • Our PD sessions are about encouraging teacher conversations across the school ...district ...state ...country ...world ...about the qualities of best practice mathematics teaching.
  • Mathematics Centre resources are designed to stimulate those conversations using the classroom as the starting point.
  • If you have tasks, use the Task Cameos to design and support your own in-house professional learning.
  • If you have Maths300, use Maths300 ETuTE to design and support your own in-house professional learning.
  • If you have Maths With Attitude or Menu Maths Packs, you have several ways of answering the question about the look and feel of a problem rich curriculum built around the attitude that all students can learn to work like a mathematician.

  See the Link List below for more information.

• Bubblz the Maths Clown

  It's a bit unusual to think about the last month of the school year, when we have just begun the first, but if you don't, you might miss an opportunity. Bubblz the Maths Clown (aka Caroline Ainslie) will be visiting Australia in December and is available for shows, workshops and conferences. At the end of the year many are looking for something special to recapture the kids' interest and this could be just the thing. Hi Doug, Did I send you the pic of the Guinness World Record attempt? We built an 8 metre, 5 stage Sierpinski Tetrahedron and our objective was 16 metres so we didn't get the intended record. However, Guinness have created a NEW world record: The World's Largest Sierpinski Pyramid (Tetrix) Cambridge University are hosting the next attempt as part of the Cambridge Science Festival on March 15th, so all we have to do is create the same again and of course, with lessons learned it will be even better. Caroline has just returned from a Bubbly Maths Road Show in Spain. There are videos from various tours, testimony from teachers and other information on the Bubbly Maths web site. See Link List below and email Caroline if you are interested.

• Pick A Box Solutions

  We knew Task 91, Pick A Box, has many solutions. We just didn't know them all. We probably still don't, but at the end of last year Vanessa Stockley's Year 5 at Fintona Girls' School added 5 more to the list. Can your class find more. See Link List below.

• Rotating The Sphinx

  Nickey Harland, St. Mary's School, West Wyalong, was exploring Sphinx in a workshop. She thinks her diagram shows that it is possible to tessellate the plane with a rotation pattern of Sphinxes that begin from a central point. Is she right? How far can you extend her pattern? Imagine your extended pattern is the tiled floor of the entrance hall to a big important building. Create the building around your entrance. Nickey's challenge is now permanently stored in the Sphinx Album.

• Domino Trails Update

  A From The Classroom section has been added to this cameo, Task 15, which shows teachers exploring floor dominoes in a workshop. Worth a look. See Link List below.

• Tasks of the Month
  Two new cameos this month.
  The Task Cameo Content Finder has been updated to include these tasks.
  • Magic Cube uses blocks numbered from 1 to 27 which have to be arranged in a cube so that the rows and columns of any slice, the pillars of the cube and the leading space diagonals of the cube each sum to the same total. To support students the card offers two clues. The magic total to aim for and some of the blocks already placed. Finding the solution requires careful step by step exploration and serious application of mental arithmetic.
  • Pythagoras 1 The task introduces Pythagoras' theorem through geometry checked by measurement. There are no As or Bs or Cs. It is a dissection proof attributed to Henry Perigal. Students are told Pythagoras' statement and then have to check it with the pieces. The challenge is to discover how the pieces have been created so they can create their own and check Pythagoras again.
      
  Click a photo to access its cameo, or access all current cameos through the Link List below.

Keep smiling,
Doug.