News

Best wishes to you all for a peaceful family Christmas, a happy New Year celebration and a great holiday!

December 2022 In this edition of the News you will find:   New eTask Schools   In Person Workshops   Calculating Excursions   Get to Know a Cameo      ... Flight Departures      ... Trisquares Please feel free to distribute this information.

Email News Services If you would like to subscribe please send an email request to: doug@blackdouglas.com.au: In the subject line write Subscribe Maths. Add your name and preferred email address. Update messages are sent from Mathematics Centre monthly through the school year. Working with Mathematics Centre will help you find your way around our site. Browsing Hint Use the View/Zoom options of your browser to 'move' the page closer or further away. Ctrl +, Ctrl - and Ctrl 0.

• New eTask Schools

  Welcome to

  • Torquay Coast Primary School

  who used their last professional development day for the year to run their first eTask Pack workshop. They were guided by one staff member's previous experience with tasks. Best wishes for a great start to using tasks next year. As your students learn more about working like a mathematician, we hope to hear from your classrooms.

• In Person Workshops

  Congratulations to the Mathematical Association of Victoria for recently pulling off the first December Conference in person workshops since 2019. It was an absolute thrill to be 'back in the saddle' leading two MAVCON22 workshops at Latrobe University. Participants in both - Algebra Through Geometry and Poster Problem Clinic - indicated that they found them useful. For me the best moment in both was when no one was listening. I wanted their attention and couldn't get it ... because they were engrossed in their own table conversations around manipulating materials and discussing challenges and teaching craft. What a buzz! It is impossible for participants and leaders to inhabit that sort of space together in a digitally delivered workshop. Algebra Through Geometry ... Years 5 - 8 A square is X. A quadrant with a radius the same length as a side of the square is Y. Now geometry connects to algebra. The concept of a pronumeral, adding and subtracting like terms, the distributive law and linear factorisation all follow, mostly by asking the mathematician's question: "Can I check this another way?". You will be using materials based on the work of Geoff Giles and will dig deeper and deeper into spatial challenges that can be expressed in algebraic terms. See Link List below for more about this task and its pedagogy. I thought your session was great. I am hoping to share the ideas we worked through with my Year 7 team as soon as I can. I also am very impressed with the great range of resources you shared with us from the Mathematics Centre website! Bernadette, Our Lady of Mercy College, Heidelberg A sensational session, I wasn't sure where you were heading when you started but I really loved where it got too and I will be adding that into my Year 8 bag of tricks. Nigel, Emmanuel College, Warrnambool Poster Problem Clinic ... Years 2 - 10 The starting point for a mathematician's work is an interesting problem; a question as yet unanswered, but with something about it that encourages exploration. It doesn't matter what the problem is. It does matter that it is interesting. A Poster Problem Clinic is a technique for securing student interest in a word problem to help them learn to work like a mathematician. Adaptable to all levels it is built around Polya's 4 stages. The problem anchoring this workshop was Kids & Cup Cakes, a variation of Task 212, Monkeys & Bananas. The 'cup cakes' are shown in the photos. See Link List below for more about this task, its variation and the pedagogy of a Clinic. It also links to a Maths At Home presentation of the problem designed for independent student-driven learning, which includes an extension into using spreadsheets.

• Calculating Excursions

  Any excursions coming up in the last days of school, or the first days of next year? The image is from this Calculating Changes Member activity where it is reproduced with permission from the Calculator Aware Number Project report. This is Kelly's approach to a real life problem. Members can see Janice's quite different approach by taking the link in Link List below. Both girls were eight years old. Members can also see how, inspired by the excursion problem, Gay Lynch, Herdsmans Cove Primary School, made a real life problem out of the school's collection of compost. This activity is not a Threaded one, but it is repeatable each time a new context opportunity arises. See Link List below for more about Calculator Aware Number.

• Get to Know a Cameo

  Task 50, Flight Departures
  

  Included in this issue because some of your children, or you, might be about to fly away on holiday. There's the story shell introduction. The computers fail at the airport and no one can remember the take off order of four planes. However, one alert person could remember clues to the order and the solution can be reconstructed. What is it? But is there only one way? Easy to state, easy to start and easy to adapt to a whole class investigation.

  The cameo explores two ways to find solutions, includes a master copy of planes to print to either make one copy of the task or resource a class set and offers several 'What happens if...?' questions to extend the investigation. The reasoning involved becomes deeper with each extension so the problem is applicable at many levels. Several teaching craft suggestions are included through the cameo.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy' set because making a Task Library copy only requires 4 toy planes which can surely be donated from a toy box somewhere in the school community.

  Task 237, Trisquares
  

  There are only two ways to join three squares together so that whole sides touch. One of those is boring. The other is a trisquare. Perhaps that's why it is so surprising to find that just two trisquares can be joined to make so many different shapes. Each shape has the same area, but not the same perimeter. Which 2-Trisquare shape has the shortest perimeter? How do you know? Which 2-Trisquare shape has the longest perimeter. How do you know? Is there more than one shortest and longest? How many of each are there? How do you know when you have found them all?

  The questions just keep rolling on. The cameo also includes an extension into value relations, a From The Classroom section showing student work and several other ideas. A template for making Trisquares is supplied.

  In the eTask Package these tasks are in the 'special' set because making Trisquares accurately takes a bit of care.

Link List eTask Package Working Mathematically (PDF) Algebra Through Geometry Monkeys & Bananas also a starting point for Kids & Cup Cakes and Poster Clinic Calculating Changes Calculating Excursions (Members) Calculator Aware Number Project (Scroll) Threading Flight Departures Trisquares Task Library Task Cameo Library Task Cameo Content Finder Calculating Changes Content Finder Calculating Changes Year Level Finder Working Mathematically with Infants Maths At Home Activity Library Order Form Did you miss the Previous News? If so you missed information about: New eTask Schools New Cube Tube Video Bridging 10 Get to Know a Cameo ... Consecutive Sums, Making Fractions 1, 2 & 3

Did You Know? You can Search Mathematics Centre. Our Site Map acts as a Table of Contents to help you find what you need in Mathematics Centre. You can find photos of every task using the Task Library. You can find tasks by content using the Task Cameo Content Finder. You can create your own Task Library in a professional learning context with the eTask Package. Calculating Changes offers Content Finder & Year Level Finder tools. You can find tasks coded by Year Level and Curriculum Strand in the Task Centre Catalogue. (PDF file) You can search for lessons by Year Level, Curriculum Strand, Lesson Features & Keyword at Maths300. You can connect Tasks to their Maths300 companion lesson using Tasks & Maths300. (PDF file) Excel version provided by Pymble Ladies' College also links each Task to its Maths With Attitude content strand. All these links, and more, appear in Working with Mathematics Centre. (PDF file)