News

The Adventure of the Sphinx is probably the best student-made mathematics education video ever. Eight minutes and 40 seconds in which Mrs. McGifford's Years 8 students from Cressy District High School demonstrate what it means to learn work like a mathematician. It is now available from Cube Tube. See Link List below.

Task 166, Sphinx

This is where it all began. An easy to state, easy to start hands-on problem solving task from Mathematics Task Centre. Each blue shape is a Sphinx. Challenge: Four sphinxes make a sphinx. Find out how. It can take up to 20 minutes for a solution to be found. When it is it should be recorded. Then the record should be turned over and the pieces 'messed up'. How long does it take to make it this time? This is just to fix the shape and the solution pattern in the students' heads. As the Cressy students say at the end of their video, this is just tip of the iceberg. We leave the rest up to you. The Cameo, the Video, the Iceberg of the Sphinx and the Sphinx Album (which all interlink) will guide you. But, as we warned Greg Huber, be careful, captivation lurks here. See Link List below.

The new year had just begun when the 45 primary schools in the Canberra Goulburn diocese each received a package of 60 additional Poly Plug. This systemic investment results from the learning successes teachers across the diocese had already created as a result of:

• involvement in our three year Working Like A Mathematician professional learning course
• extensive on-going support from the diocesan Curriculum Officers through documentation, classroom modelling and other forms of in-school support
• willingness to trial, record and improve
• membership, use of and contribution to Calculating Changes

Calculating Changes played a major part in the professional learning and many of its activities use Poly Plug. After all the work the teachers have put into improving learning over these years they must surely have felt valued and inspired to continue when this unexpected post-Christmas gift arrived.

In The Background Patrick Kelly from head office placed the order for 3,200 sets just before schools closed. Our Distribution Manager, Ina Koetsier, set the manufacturer to work immediately and then shortened her holiday to spend many hours with a helper sorting, repacking and shipping. Plugs arrive in large cartons with the yellow/blue boards and the red boards in separate cartons. Each plug board has to be checked to see if it is within thickness tolerance, which happens as they are repacked into yellow/blue/red sets. Each set then has to be placed into a press-seal bag as it is counted into smaller cartons with the correct number of sets for each school. That's a lot of work.

Half the order waiting for the postal van.

Workshops in Working Like A Mathematician and the teaching craft that encourages it have been inspiring teachers for a long time.

Englewood Herald September 1, 2000, page 3. Englewood is a district of Denver. This is the most fun math workshop I've ever attended. Peggy Sneed, Maddox kindergarten teacher I like the idea that it will be a challenge to the students to find different ways to solve the problem and I like it that you have everything you need and all the information to help you use it right at your finger tips. Veteran teacher Judy Cain Read the full article from the Link List below. You can also read the inspirational story from Marnie Knapps Year 4 class at Maddox Elementary.

Going
Ready made tasks like Sphinx, or the ones used in the Englewood PD are running out. From the original catalogue of 241, Ina has only about 90 different ones in stock. There are only one or two copies of some, but multiple copies of many. The best way to order from remaining stock is to ask for one of everything up to what your budget allows. The most recent order is from a New York school which is already working with an Australian consultant to help them learn how to make best use of their resource.

• Tasks as you have known them for decades will certainly be unavailable by the middle of this year.

Coming
eTasks are likely to be available around May. The same wonderful problem cards available as A4 PDF files to which you add your own materials. They are designed to be the centre of an activity, over-time, professional learning focus which can include selected parents and students. All the documentation to support a curriculum shift towards Working Like a Mathematician in primary or secondary school, including support for self-directed PD, will be supplied in the package or available from our web site. All 241 tasks will be included (150 already prepared) and they will be sorted into groups such as 'Easy to Make' for a smooth start.

• Jenny, who is organising the order for New York, is excited that her teachers can start now with the 'ready-mades', then top up and extend with eTasks when they are available.

Did you know that we already deliver Maths With Attitude manuals, Picture Puzzles and Menu Maths Packs electronically?
See our order form in the Link List below.