News

July 2023 In this edition of the News you will find:   Professional Development: It's what we do.   Red Plug Hunting   Get to Know a Cameo      ... Latin Squares      ... Pentominoes Please feel free to distribute this information.

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• Professional Development: It's what we do.

  Perhaps you are thinking about arranging professional learning for this semester, or looking further ahead, for 2024. If the concept of all students learning to work like a mathematician in fascinating, captivating, absorbing classrooms appeals to you, please call or email for a chat. (See Contacts in the banner above.) We have experience working with schools, districts, clusters and systems.

  Years 2 - 10 Years 2 - 8 (10)

  Alternatively, we have tried to capture something of the feel of working together in our collection of DIY workshop videos. We provide the workshop content. You supply the workshop leader. Read brief summaries of these workshops, including the preparation involved, at the Cube Tube link in Link List below and click through to the video from there. Cube Tube lists all our other videos too. Perhaps it's worth bookmarking the page. Whichever DIY workshop you choose there will be another video on the list that will back up and extend what you learn.

  Years K - 6 (8) Years 2 - 8 (10)

• Red Plug Hunting

  This Member activity for Years K - 4 was created, and has grown, through professional development. Originating from a conversation with a great grandmother about the about the fun the children had at the family Easter Egg Hunt, the idea was picked up by one teacher, who trialled it with a colleague, then shared it through a PD course. In a later course in another state, other teachers learnt about it from the Calculating Changes web site, had similar success trialling it and went to the effort of recording what their students were saying about the activity as they worked. The captioned photos they supplied have greatly enriched the activity on site.

  Easy to state and easy to start. Various small press-seal sandwich bags of red plugs are hidden around the classroom. The first job is to find them. The second job is to count the number you find and check it another way. The third job is to share the total of the found plugs among all the children who have been hunting.

  When the plugs are found, equal shares is only one of the challenges that can be introduced. The activity suggests more, for example finding the difference between the number of plugs found by Group A and Group B, and includes an Investigation Guide provided by the first two trial teachers. As always the counting and calculating challenges are partnered by the mathematician's question, Can I check it another way?. A question that so many children love because it helps them become responsible for their own learning. See Link List below.

               

• Get to Know a Cameo

  Task 44, Latin Squares
  

  Latin Squares is a task that offers opportunity for students with a visual/spatial or logical/mathematical reasoning preference to enter a challenge that isn't cluttered by numbers. Arrange three blocks in each of three colours on a 3 x 3 grid with no colour repeated in any row or column. That's the beginning and the card actually gives one answer to start things off. But is the given answer the only way? How do you know? Answering this question implies finding a process that will reveal all the possible ways. The cameo offers possibilities to help you advise students as they investigate.

  Then the problem is expanded using more blocks as appropriate and a 4 x 4, then 5 x 5 grid. It is not necessary to follow these challenges immediately after success with 3 x 3. Students might want to stick at it, but they also might want to put it aside and note in their journal that they can borrow it from the Task Library again at a later date.

  When successful with the 3 x 3 case, the other possibility is to take a 'side trip' into designing tiling patterns, as explained with illustrations in the cameo. Connecting maths with art is a way of helping some learners feel more positive about their maths learning.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the easy set because it only needs 5 cubes in each of 5 colours and 2cm wooden cubes are common in schools. Alternatively, square tiles can work, as can click together plastic cubes.

  Task 66, Pentominoes
  

  Dominoes are shapes made from two squares joined so whole sides touch. There's only one way to do that so there is only one domino shape. In the same way, pentominoes are shapes made from five squares joined so whole sides touch. There are several ways to do that and in school, finding the number of ways is often the focus. That is a listed part of the iceberg in this task, but the story context and gradual shift of difficulty through the card are designed to offer a more interesting way in. Solutions to the card problems are provided in the cameo (as always), as is a sample list of extension problems representing the large catalogue of such challenges that has

  developed since pentominoes were first introduced as a set in Henry Dudeney's 1907 publication, The Canterbury Puzzles. Pentominoes play a role in some video/app games, so students may be familiar with the shapes. The spatial perception encouraged and developed by playing with pentominoes is particularly useful in other parts of maths.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'special' set because it needs a set of pentominoes and printing and laminating two boards.

Link List DIY Workshops: Cube Tube Red Plug Hunting (Member Activity) Latin Squares Pentominoes eTask Package Task Library Task Cameo Library Task Cameo Content Finder Calculating Changes 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: DIY Workshop: Multiplication Journey Navigating Mathematics Centre Get to Know a Cameo ... Double Staircase, Flags From A Ship

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)