News

February 2023 In this edition of the News you will find:   New eTask Schools   New DIY Workshop Video   Get to Know a Cameo      ... Magic Squares      ... Kids on Grids Please feel free to distribute this information.

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• New eTask Schools

  Welcome to

  • Christine McGeever, New Zealand

    who has been using Maths With Attitude for several years and thought the eTasks would work really well with them.

    I have downloaded the zip and it is amazing.

    Seems like her hypothesis was correct.

  • Mamre Anglican School, New South Wales

    where Lorraine Dredge is excited to be introducing Tasks to her new school after using them for several years in her previous school.

  • Langwarrin Primary School, Victoria

    where maths leader Ryan Jellie is excited to be in a school working to develop staff's understanding and delivery of problem solving sessions, in particular hands on activities. That seems to fit well with our perception of school mathematics as learning to work like a mathematician. The school also added Picture Puzzles, Menu Maths, Maths With Attitude and Professor Morris Puzzles to complement and extend the eTasks. Serious commitment ... and Ryan's role has time built in to facilitate professional learning.

• New DIY Workshop Video

  We introduced DIY workshop videos last year.

  • We provide the workshop content through the video.
  • You provide the local leader to organise, facilitate and follow up the session.

  Calculating Changes is professional development built around engineering 'aha' moments in number. More 'aha' moments, more often for more children. If you want your students to develop number sense and skills beyond what is normally expected for the age then this DIY workshop video is likely to generate staff discussion. I did watch your video ... and I learned a lot from it. Thanks so much for sharing it with me. Kelli Bedggood, Yackandandah Primary School See Link List below for more detail including preparation notes and a link to the video. There is no cost. DIY videos are freely available. Professional development is what we do, but if you want the person to person form any time please contact for a chat.

• Get to Know a Cameo

  Task 92, Magic Squares
  

  Magic Squares is a classic problem but in this case the magic total isn't given. Part of the challenge may be to find out why the sum of each row, column and leading diagonal is 15. The problem is deliberately set up this way so that anyone can enter it using a trial, record and improve strategy. The collected data soon suggests there are limits to the what the magic total can be and that leads to identifying it. There is still work to do to find a magic square solution and the Cameo offers two approaches. One a hands-on break the problem into smaller parts strategy and one a thorough explanation of logical reasoning.

  Then there are the extensions:

  • What happens if it is a 4 x 4 square using the digits 1 to 16.
  • What happens if we change each number in the (3 x 3) solution in the same way (eg: divide by 3)?
    Is the new square still magic? If so, what is its magic total?

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy' set because it only requires square tiles of the right size that are marked with digits as on the task card.

  Task 217, Kids On Grids
  

  This is a stunningly rich task. It is provides a 'map' of an area with a grid overlay and tells the story of some children who head out from their camp site to find water. They have to know where they find the water so it can be found again. At this point it is about the need to establish a reference point (in this case, base camp), ordered pairs to locate position on a plane and the conventions around how they are read. The shift from here into graph algebra is subtle and sweet. In the first case they just go 'somewhere' to look for water. What happens if the leader sends them out in according to a rule such as:

  "You must go 2 units east and one unit north from the person who went out before you. Ryoko you stay in base camp. You go out first Lauren. The rest of you follow on from there."?

  • A rule like this will produce a visual pattern. Change the rule to get the same visual pattern in a different position on the board.
  • What happens if we start by placing the children in a visual pattern? Can we work out a rule from the ordered pairs that result?

  And there are so many more possibilities for a range of ages and experience.

  In the eTask Package these tasks are in the 'more work' set because the playing board takes extra printing and laminating, especially if done at A3 size, which is recommended.

Link List eTask Package Working Mathematically (PDF) Video: Engineering 'aha' Moments in Number Calculating Changes Magic Squares Kids On Grids 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 In Person Workshops Calculating Excursions Get to Know a Cameo ... Flight Departures, Trisquares

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)