News

• 50 Activities

  In the 59 days from March 23rd to May 21st, fifty rich, practical, intriguing activities have been added to our Maths At Home site to support learners, parents, teachers and schools during school closure. All are presented within the framework of learning to work like a mathematician. There are activities suitable for all levels from K to 10 and each one has been used successfully at a range of year levels.

  All are sourced from Mathematics Centre and have been 'tweaked' for an audience that may be early years learners closely supported by a parent, through to teenage self-directed learners. Some are deliberately presented to be something the family can explore together. Among the most recent uploads, the following have been sourced from Mathematics Task Centre.

  • Networks
  • Number Tiles
  • Rectangle Fractions
  • Pythagoras 1
  • Cars In A Garage
  • Steps
  • Red To Blue
  • Tricube Constructions A
  • Garden Beds
  • Wallpaper Patterns
  • Doug's Tablecloth

  It's probably worth having a look at a couple of these at least. Tasks have always been designed for independent use by a pair of students. The teacher being the essential mentor in the classroom. In this tweaked format, we have tried to maintain the self-directed approach, while weaving the teacher's voice through the text as a support. The days of school closure are numbered, but you might be stimulated to use this new resource as part of your post-Covid planning.

  See Link List below for the web address.

• Get to Know a Cameo

  Task 78, Which View?
  

  Students are shown the front, (left) side and top views of a 'building' and are asked to build it from wooden cubes. There may be more than one answer. The task also invites the students to work backwards, create their own 'building', then record its various views. It is one of suite of tasks that can become the cornerstone of a unit of work on representing 3D objects in 2D, something that is critical to many parts of life and industry. Plan and elevation views are explored and the extension is to represent what is experienced as an isometric drawing.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy to make' set because it only needs 17 wooden cubes. (We assume wooden cubes are a readily available resource in most mathematics storerooms. If not, the task has a link to where they can be purchased.)

  Task 86, Thirty-one
  

  What begins as a card game for two becomes a search for a strategy to win. There are 'secret numbers' that control the game and once discovered it becomes clear that they are a pattern of numbers. Why? How do these secret numbers relate to the rules of the game? What happens if we change the rules? Are there still secret numbers? Can we find a way to force a win in all such games? Is there a counter-strategy? The task is supported by three classroom contributions, one of which is from a teacher who learned as much about his children as they did about mathematics. This one also includes an excellent example of a student's journal work.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy to make' set because it only needs the cards 1 to 6 in four suits from a pack of cards.

Keep smiling,
Doug.