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July 1st 1992 was the first Mathematics Task Centre Project workshop. The first package combining the purchase of ready-made hands-on problem solving tasks with a one day workshop. The workshop helped teachers explore what was at that time already 15 years experience across the country with integrating tasks into the school curriculum. Charles Lovitt led the project through Curriculum Corporation. He guided the gathering of classroom wisdom and collection and creation of the tasks from primary and secondary schools with established task-centred programs. Ian Lowe delivered the workshop.

A quarter century later, July 1st 2017, marked the end of ready-made tasks and the evolution of the next quarter century of hands-on problem solving investigations, each with three lives, delivered as eTasks which teachers complete using their own equipment. Extensive support documentation in the eTask package, including workshop leader's notes and a slide show, offers a fabulous focus for continuing in-house professional learning, perhaps integrated with Maths With Attitude eManuals. Of course we can also deliver the professional development for you.

July 2nd 2017, 25 years and one day since the first Task Centre Project workshop, the first eTask Package was ordered by, and delivered to, Deloraine High School, Tasmania. Thanks for your trust and support Carolyn Abraham and staff. Through July there have been more orders, the latest from the University of New South Wales.

See Link List below for more history, three lives of a task, MWA eManuals and eTasks.

July 1st 2017 also celebrated the first day of Ina Koetsier's retirement. Distribution Manager for 15 years from 2002 it is almost impossible to measure her contribution to mathematics education over that time. Look at it this way. During her time Mathematics Task Centre has placed around a quarter of a million tasks, thousands of Poly Plug and huge numbers of other materials and publications in schools around the world because those schools wanted to begin or extend the hands-on investigative nature of their curriculum. They wanted their students to learn to work like a mathematician. As we were told by two visiting Swedish educators (see Link List below), there was nowhere else in the world to find so much that is so good in the one place. It was Ina who made that happen and made it work. Ina worked with every client discussing the detail of the resources, meeting the needs of their orders, packing, posting, invoicing, banking, book-keeping. The next time you scan through the photos in the Task Library (see Link List below) consider that for each of those 250,000+ tasks:

Ina arranged the printing, laminating and trimming of every task card and every other printed item. Ina ordered, sorted and warehoused every piece of equipment - that totals millions of pieces because there are way more than 4 pieces of equipment in most tasks. Ina liaised with cottage industry craftspeople through to large manufacturing businesses to produce specially designed equipment to specification. Ina made sure there was always sufficient stock on the shelves to service any order within 10 days - the record was under an hour door to door in one case. Ina put the stickers on (almost) every task like Number Tiles or 4 & 20 Blackbirds. Ina guillotined every card for Who Owns The Monkey?, Police Line Up and several other such tasks. Ina assembled and packed (almost) every one of the quarter million tasks, first into their plastic bags, then into cartons. Ina arranged the delivery of every carton, often taking them to the post office herself.

If you can picture what these words mean in practical terms, you are seeing through a glass darkly into her contribution to mathematics education.

Face to face with teachers Ina was always careful to explain that she was not a teacher. She was 'just an administrator'.
... Perhaps not.

During July Black Douglas Professional Education Services, which manages Mathematics Centre, moved to new premises. We also changed our ABN. Your business administration will need to know our new details, which are:

We are delighted to be involved with this initiative of the Mathematical Association of Victoria.

Engaging all students in mathematics

Date:   Tues 8 Aug 2017 (very soon!)
Venue:   Federation University Churchill
Time:   9:00am – 3:30pm
Who should attend:   Teachers of Years P - 10

• Early years
• Primary
• Secondary

• Presenters will include Doug Williams, and MAV consultants, Jen Bowden and Helen Haralambous.
• See Link List below to visit the MAV site and download the flier or register.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore if you are pondering the place of tasks in your curriculum our refreshed Photos page might assist your musings. One link from it is to a PDF of photos and captions showing aspects of classroom organisation and students at work. Another leads you to examples from several schools which show student journal records of task investigations. There are many stimulating photos in these articles. See Link List below.