Task Centre News

April/May 2003

• Task Centre Concept Travels Well
  During the Easter period I have had the opportunity to visit USA, UK and Sweden to run workshops on learning to work like a mathematician using the Task Centre and Maths300 approaches. Everywhere, participants have been enthralled with the stories of classroom success that these tasks and lessons can retell. I can testify from personal experience that Greedy Pig, Eric The Sheep, Sphinx and Peg & Tape Fractions, for instance, encourage just as much learning in Swedish Year 6 and 7 children (who are working with English as a second language remember) as they do with your students. The teaching wisdom that, over decades, has been embedded in these tasks can truly inspire teachers.

  Consider Josephine's response. She, like the other 60 teachers at the Linköping session on April 24th, had spent a full day at school starting at 8:00am and then turned up at 4:00pm for my four hour workshop organised by their district leaders. At the end she came to me with a big smile and said:

  Thank you. I lost all my inspiration in school today ... and now I have it all back.

  Any such thanks belongs to the hundreds of teachers since the end of the 1970s who have worked so hard to develop and refine the hands-on problem solving approach.

• Small Things Matter
  The following is from an email that came just after I returned:

  Let me start by saying how inspirational it was meeting and speaking with you briefly at the youth hostel in San Antonio. Both Donna and I agreed that it was our "best session" at the Math Conference!

  We spoke then and I am following up on our interest in purchasing a set of the hands-on activities you allowed us to try out. Is this possible?

  Michele

  Michele and Donna are from the Virgin Islands. Will tasks soon be in use in the Caribbean?

• Gold Star for Maths300
  Ina Koetsier, our Distribution Manager (see Contacts on the left) has come up with a great idea while working in schools helping them refresh their task centre kits (see Resources on the left for this service). Almost everyone uses coloured stickers to indicate to teachers the strand and/or difficulty of the task. But this system was invented decades prior to Maths300.

  Ina's idea is to add a gold star to the tasks that have a matching Maths300 lesson so teachers know where they can find the support to use the task as a whole class investigation to model how a mathematician works.

  You're a star Ina!

• Task Centre Kit for Aboriginal Students
  Recently a teacher looking for information about our Task Centre Kit for Aboriginal Students rang to say she was having trouble finding the information easily on this site. We were delighted to receive the call. If this is to be a Home Base for everything related to Task Centres, as is intended, then information such as this should be readily available. As a result you will find a new Indigenous Students link on the left.
  Please let us know if there is any other information related to tasks that you cannot easily find on our Task Centre Home Base.

• Items from Email
  Matt Skoss
  Two-Sphinx Shapes (or Double Sphinxes) have been used to introduce the Maths300 lesson What's It Worth? There are actually a remarkable number of shapes that can be made with just two sphinxes. Matt Skoss from Alice Springs High School got excited about the problem at a recent workshop and this extract from his email also suggests a great use of educational technology which could be a practical way to record other problem solving adventures.

  Someone once said that if you don't use an idea within 12 days of a workshop, you never will. I thoroughly enjoyed myself (at the workshop) ... have been Sphinxing all week, in fact! My kids have started making a little movie, to capture all the moves possible in positioning two sphinxes. I've done it with two classes, and both groups have got into it.

  Look for Sphinx pieces in the Resources link and teaching ideas about Sphinx in the Principles link.

  Pamela Mc Gifford
  

  ... yesterday working with the Year 7s on their Garden Beds (4 lessons now, they have all put their heads down & worked their little __ off & been annoyed when the bell goes ...

  Four lessons on the one problem and still interested. Now isn't that the way a mathematician would work?

• New Tasks for Younger Students
  Three new tasks have been added to the catalogue to support teachers of younger students. You can access the latest catalogue in the Documents link on the left. The new tasks are:
  229. Animal Farm
       A younger students' version of Arithmagons that involves manipulating objects rather than numerals. The context makes the mathematics more accessible.
  230. Pack Up Your Bears
       The task contains colourful plastic bears. The students are 'requested' to pack up their bears, but there is a maximum number that can fit into the 'trays' supplied. The various ways of packing the bears are recorded as additions and the investigation involves finding many 'names' for the same number.
  231. Flowers In The Field
       From a given number of different pretend flowers, students explore all the ways of making bunches of different sizes.
  Many thanks to Ulla Öberg, one of the many Task Centre supporters in Sweden, and a very experienced Infant teacher, for suggesting Tasks 230 and 231.

  Over the years teachers have suggested that some of the Project tasks can be adapted for use with infants. This list is now provided for information in the Resources link on the left.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

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