News

March 2023 In this edition of the News you will find:   New eTask Schools   School Maths is...   Poly Plug, Proportion & Percent   Get to Know a Cameo      ... Rectangle of Squares      ... Soft Drink Crates 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 Wyong Public School, NSW, and East Doncaster Secondary College, Victoria, which also requested all the secondary Maths With Attitude eManuals to help them plan and execute their Working Mathematically curriculum. We look forward to hearing stories of success from both schools in the future.

• School Maths is...
  School mathematics is ... learning to work like a mathematician.

  That's the proposition in a new paper just published in our Web Papers. The article invites you to temporarily set aside what you think school mathematics is and, through a suite of lessons based on Task 147, Garden Beds, discover what it could be like seen through this Working Mathematically lens.

  Exploring Garden Beds on the floorboard at Waverley Christian College.

  Garden Beds is most often used between Years 4 and 8, but its extensions and embedded links make it clear that it can be valuably used from Years 2 to 10. However, the paper is not about mathematics. It's about teaching focus, teaching craft and the enriched mathematics learning that can flow as a consequence. It is only 8 pages and is a perfect stimulus for a DIY professional development session from one hour to half a day. It's a great article and valuable to the maths community. Jen Bowden, MAV See Link List below.

• Poly Plug, Proportion & Percent

  14 out of 25 are blue.

  2 lots of 14 out of 25 are blue. So 28 out of 50 are blue.

  3 lots of 14 out of 25 are blue. So 42 out of 75 are blue.

  And if one more child joined the display?

  Calculating Changes members who explore this activity further will find Kate Thureau's adventure with her Gagebrook Primary School Year 5/6. Kate threaded the activity through the curriculum three or four times a week over three or four weeks.

  Once they were able to visualise the problems, looking at equivalent fractions and percentages became remarkably easy.
  It was like a journey that we all approached together because we were all students; it became extremely enjoyable and a very valuable learning experience. The children were keen to do these activities and even the repetition made them feel more secure and none of them complained.

  You will also find an example from Wangaratta Primary of a learner who differentiated the learning for himself to explore decimals and how the calculator can be used to help such a person check their work another way. See Link List below.

• Get to Know a Cameo

  Task 138, Rectangle of Squares
  

  The task is easy to start. All you have to do is put the squares together to make a rectangle. Most people (teachers and students) begin with a guess and check strategy. After a while you might need to ask: Do you know anything about the rectangle you are trying to make?. Guide the students towards the realisation that its area must be the sum of the areas of the squares. Once that measurement is decided, the possible dimensions of the rectangle can be explored. There are several possibilities and some can be easily discarded.

  However, even when an appropriate set of factors is found, the problem doesn't necessarily fall into place. An extra guidance might be the realisation that the final rectangle must be at least 18cm each side, because that's the size of the largest square.

  An additional joy is how the challenge can so easily bridge into the discovery of a set of squares with Fibonacci areas that also grow into a rectangle (in this case infinitely) and reveal the famous related spiral.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'special' set because it takes a bit of special carpentry (or careful designing, printing on card and cutting) to prepare the set of squares.

  Task 211, Soft Drink Crates
  

  One of the most important features of this task is that it doesn't require much in the way of maths content skills - knowledge of odd and even is about it. As a result almost anyone can get started, especially because the story shell of stacking cans into a crate is widely familiar. Guess and check is the most common starting point and will bring some success. However, breaking the problem into parts by, for example, first getting the columns correct, is more useful in the long run. Students are eased into the problem by exploring one case, 10 cans into a 6 x 4 crate

  so all rows and columns are even. Then they are challenged a little more with 18 cans in the crate. The challenge can go further by checking all the can numbers from 1 to 24. One can can't work of course and 24 cans must work. But what about those in between?

  To support a whole class investigation, the cameo supplies a printable 'crate' that fits counters and a recording sheet. There are also several 'What happens if...?' questions. There are two excellent From The Classroom contributions in the cameo. One is a wordless photo story that clearly illustrates that the Year 5 class was fascinated, captivated and absorbed.

  In the eTask Package these tasks are in the 'easy' set because it only needs 24 blocks to fit the 'crate'.

Link List eTask Package School Mathematics is Learning to Work Like a Mathematician (PDF) Working Mathematically (PDF) Calculating Changes Poly Plug, Proportion & Percent (Calculating Changes Members) Rectangle of Squares Soft Drink Crates 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 DIY Workshop Video Get to Know a Cameo ... Magic Squares, Kids on Grids

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)