Task Centre News

September 2002

• Congratulations...
  ...to Adele Fielding, one of our Task Centre consultants. Adele, originally from Queensland, made a career move to Florida about two years ago. We have just been informed that Adele is one of only three secondary maths (sorry math!) teachers in Florida to be made a Presidential Award Nominee. She will be recognised at the State Mathematics Conference in Orlando during October.

  Adele comments: It is an honor and I feel I am also an honorary ambassador for Australia, math teaching, and Task Center!

  (Editor: Note the strong influence of cultural immersion on spelling ... only joking Adele.)

• Not The First Time
  We believe that Adele is the first native Aussie to be honoured as a Presidential Award Nominee for work that relates to task centres, but Dick Evans, our great supporter from Plymouth State College in New Hampshire tells me that Kay Burns from Bedford was the NH secondary awardee last year. Bedford is the school district that received a Toyota Time grant to have Dick work with their teachers on implementing some of the Task Centre materials during the academic years 2000 - 2001 and 2001 - 2002. Kay was one of the project staff leaders in that project and she uses the materials regularly.

• Staying In Touch
  Did you know?...
  • Two new tasks have been added to the collection. They are included in the most recent form of the Task Catalogue in the Documents link on the left.
    Triangles & Colours, Task 221, is a 'clever counting' problem which involves making triangles with sides of different colours. How many solutions are there? How do we know when we have found them all? The concrete material is brightly coloured icy-pole (popsicle) sticks. The whole class investigation 'life' of the task is already recorded on Maths300.
    Making Fractions 1, Task 222, is actually a task we rediscovered in the process of shifting the warehouse back in July. It completes the collection of Making Fractions 1, 2 & 3, all of which use fraction kits made from colourful, tough, Plastazote foam. Making Fractions 1 is the toughest. Making Fractions 2 is the easiest. Each of these tasks involves using any of the pieces as the whole, and sets the challenge of finding the equivalent worth of the remaining pieces.
  • Deception Bay State High School and Marsden State High School, Queensland have been added to the list of schools that welcome Task Centre visitors. See the School Visits link.
  • Maths With Attitude is well and truly on the way. The four kits in Years 3 & 4 series are now complete. Between them they offer 25 weeks of hands-on problem solving across all curriculum strands using tasks, whole class investigations and software. We are about to start on the Years 5 & 6 series which will be completed by the end of 2002. See the Products link opposite.
  • Library Kit flier in the Documents link on the left has been redesigned.
  • Prime Number Volume 17, No. 3, September 2002, the primary journal of the Mathematical Association of Victoria, has an article on pages 10 & 11 that is based on Task 133, Win At The Fair. Andrew Tonlin used the iceberg of the task as it is explored in the companion Maths300 lesson and turned the task into a real-life fund-raising activity at the school fair (called a Paddy's Market).
  • Every page of this site was reviewed and changed in September to make it easier to use and more informative. We are still building the site, so if there is anything about tasks that you have looked for on this Home Base and haven't found, let us know and we will do our best to add what you need.

• An End of Term Story
  Anne Grigg, Melbourne, Australia
  In Australia, as this page is written, many States are closing down for the two week Spring holiday. While other teachers and students have begun to faulter, exhausted after the long and sickness-ridden Winter term, Anne Grigg writes full of enthusiasm for the new passion her class has discovered in problem solving.

  My 5/6 classroom has been buzzing this week with lots of maths tasks - some rounded up from the MAV problem of the week site, to which I've added:
  "How many solutions are there?"
  "How do we know when we have them all?"

  We've talked mathematically, tried to solve problems, made mistakes, justified our ideas, created formulae, run out of time and had lots of fun. I've tried to be the back-seat driver letting the kids help/challenge each other to solutions. What a change in dynamics! It's such a fantastic thing to see the kids develop the confidence and language to talk about their ideas.

  And then today another teacher popped in to find out what all the noise was about and has gone off to try one of the activities with his 3/4 class...

• A Summer Story
  Sally Collins, Denver, August 2002
  Just wanted you to know that the tasks are still alive and well in Englewood, and I am always looking for new ways to incorporate them and expose them to teachers.

  We had a 3 week "summer institute" (a nice name for summer school) for our low achieving 6th - 8th grade students in math. I developed the curriculum around 9 math tasks from Maths300 (predominately on ratios and proportions, but other fun stuff mixed in). I then trained 3 teachers in using those 9 tasks and then let them go! Early reports were that the teachers and students loved them. Assessment data results will be available in the next 4 - 6 weeks.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

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