News

May 2023 In this edition of the News you will find:   DIY Workshop: Multiplication Journey   Navigating Mathematics Centre   Get to Know a Cameo      ... Double Staircase      ... Flags From A Ship 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.

• DIY Workshop: Multiplication Journey

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

  Within the context of learning to work like a mathematician, this DIY video workshop invites your teachers to build teaching craft from concrete materials and diagrams (semi-concrete) to symbols and generalisation within differentiated classrooms and across the school. It's a practical look at building multiplication concepts and skills from early investigation of equal number rows (arrays), through times tables, short multiplication, long multiplication and algebra.

  As with all workshop videos, the link in Link List below leads first to a screen guiding preparation of the session, including printing and materials needed for activities. When ready you click an image beside that text and you're taken to the video on Cube Tube, our YouTube channel.

• Navigating Mathematics Centre

  Do you use our Search Box? It's always front and centre at the top of the home page. It's powered by Google which does a pretty good job of exclusively returning responses from Mathematics Centre. A single keyword is usually the most useful search. For example, fish and chips will get you nothing, but using either fish or chips separately will lead you to several amazing mathematical adventures within the site.

  Also accessible from the home page, Site Map and Big Picture are two more tools designed to help you find what you're looking for among the 40+ years of classroom success stories. These tools have been refreshed and updated this month, so perhaps now is the moment to try using them to dig further into the site.

  • Site Map is...
    a table of contents hyperlinked to every section of the site.
  • Big Picture is...
    a page of easy to read bullet points covering the intent, context and content of every section of the site.

  Whether new to Mathematics Centre, or an old friend looking to broaden your understanding of the site, we suggest you take time to explore a new direction using these tools. See Link List below.

• Get to Know a Cameo

  Task 61, Double Staircase
  

  Very easily stated and started, especially given the diagram on the card. Build a staircase of blocks up to a platform then come down the other side on a matching set of stairs. If I tell you any height for the staircase, can you tell me the number of blocks needed to build it? That's the generalisation question waiting in the iceberg of the task, but the card starts things off with a particular case of 10 blocks high for each of two staircase designs. That makes this first stage accessible to younger learners.

  As the cameo indicates, an important aspect of digging into this iceberg is to ask the mathematician's question Can I check this another way?. For some students tackling that question reveals different ways of looking at the construction, each of which suggests a different way of calculating.

  In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy' set because it only needs cube blocks or square tiles, which are in most maths storerooms.

  Task 141, Flags From A Ship
  

  Essentially this task asks the question How many coded messages can be sent using exactly four different flags on a pole?. A teacher or senior student could probably answer this question in 5 secs by doing a rehearsed calculation. That's fine if they can also explain the logic behind the calculation and check it another way. The task encourages asking What happens if there are fewer (or more) flags? and that leads to developing the logic. For those with enough experience a pattern does develop and the background to the rehearsed calculation is uncovered.

  A sideways extension for some students will be to find out about the International Maritime Signal Flag system and try to build a simplified version of their own. In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy' set because it only needs 4 cubes or tiles in different colours.

Link List DIY Workshop Video: Multiplication Journey Site Map Big Picture Double Staircase Flags From A Ship 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: A School Without Books Uncover Counting Get to Know a Cameo ... Heads & Legs, Fraction Estimation

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)