Task Centre News

December 2004/January 2005

• Maths With Attitude, Years 9 & 10
  
  • The Chance & Measurement kit is now available. See Maths With Attitude in the Resources link on the left for details of tasks and lessons which have been included.
  • The other three kits at this level, Number & Computation, Pattern & Algebra and Space & Logic will be available for the beginning of the 2005 school year.
  • Then you will have access to:
       integrated
       hands-on problem solving
       whole class investigation
       software supported
       resource material
       for Year 3 - 10!!

• Special Discounts
  Our review of service, prices and products which took effect from October 1st led us to discontinue some lines in favour of the exciting new range of Maths With Attitude kits which offer hands-on problem solving and whole class investigation alternatives from Years 3 - 10. See the Resources link on the left for more information about MWA.

  We have some stock of the discontinued lines on the shelf and they are now available at substantial discount. Prices listed are for sales within Australia only. Clients from beyond Australia please ask for a quote. Prices include GST and delivery in Australia.

  Discontinued Replacement Units

  • Now available at $299 each (were $357.50)
  • Each kit is made up of 20 tasks and a manual of extensive notes and investigation sheets.
    • 20 x Pattern & Algebra Upper Primary
      (NB: The 20 tasks in this kit include doubles of three tasks.)
    • 4 x Pattern & Algebra Lower Secondary
    • 18 x Computation Upper Primary
    • 25 x Computation Lower Secondary

  Discontinued Mixed Media Unit 2: Fractions in Action

  • Now available at $275 each (were $302.50)
  • Each kit is made up of 10 tasks, two manuals of extensive notes and investigation sheets and software on floppy disk.
  • The software is for Windows only and is an earlier version of Fraction Estimation which is now on Maths300.
  • The software is sold with a Campus Licence giving the purchaser the right to use it on any number of computers on the one physical campus.
  • There are 25 of these kits available.

  To order, fax your purchase order made out to Black Douglas Professional Education Services to (03) 9727 4644. State the items you want and add the words 'discontinued lines'. To talk further about this offer, ring (03) 9726 8316 or email:
  doug@blackdouglas.com.au.

  NOTE: The Chance & Data Replacement Unit which is designed for Upper Primary and Lower Secondary classes, and Mixed Media Unit 1, Points of View, remain on our Resources list as examples of two different unit plans which integrate hands-on problem solving into the mathematics curriculum. Maths With Attitude requires Maths300 Membership. These Units do not.

• In Depth Task Teaching
  In the April/May 2004 News we reported on the successful Thorne Grammar School model for integrating tasks into the curriculum through a Home/School lending program. The detail of the model is now stored in the Integrating Tasks link on the left. Andy Martin and the staff at Thorne are always looking for ways to extend their Working Mathematically curriculum and we have just had news of their activities in the new (Northern Hemisphere) academic year.

  As part of his teaching allotment, Andy is now sharing a class with a colleague and using tasks to extend and develop the course work being presented by his partner. It is a Year 8 class and many of the students were taught by Andy through the Home Lending approach in Year 7. He is spending as much as six lessons on one task and is currently working on Task 62, 4 & 20 Blackbirds. Andy's email about developments is below, however, it is interesting that the first suspicion we had that something exciting was happening was an email a week earlier from one of his resourceful students. Gareth had done some Internet searching, discovered our web site, found my email address and was asking for some guidance with the task. Whatever Andy and the team are doing, someone in the class seems keen.

  I have been assigned a class in Year 8 that I share with another colleague. Since many of the students were taught by me in Year 7 and participated in the Home Lending Project. I wanted to diversify their curriculum in Year 8. My colleague teaches the conventional scheme of work and in the lesson with me I explore the iceberg aspect of the tasks and try to develop applications of the work done with my colleague.

  Hence, when she was developing construction skills with triangles and introducing symmetry I worked on Sphinx. We were able to investigate rotation and reflection symmetries using two sphinx pieces and try to draw our findings! Now that she has moved to algebra I extended the sphinx idea of Paul Elliot's formula and introduced 4 & 20 Blackbirds as a way of showing how equations can be used to explain conditions. The class have now met simultaneous equations with 9 unknowns and can show we have more than one solution!

  By spending at least 6 lessons on each task I can keep linking to prior learning, so with Blackbirds we will soon examine solutions that are rotations of previous known solutions etc.

  [Note: Paul Elliot is a Thorne student and his work is in the Sphinx Album link on the left.]

• eBuddies Wanted
  Our tasks are the only resources you can find in schools all over the world. That means students in Australia, Sweden, UK, USA, ... can work together using exactly the same material. Try doing that with a text book!

  Andy Martin has organised a successful eBuddy network before and wants to do so again. PLEASE HELP. There are many benefits which accrue apart from young mathematicians talking with each other.

  • At this stage of the year Northern Hemisphere schools are just firing up, so this is a great time to begin an adventure which can continue through this academic year.
  • Southern Hemisphere schools are winding down for their summer holiday, but now that exams are more or less out of the way it is a great way to add an interest to the curriculum.
  PLEASE register your interest directly with Andy Martin at either of these email addresses and help him get this under way.
  • andy@1martin1.freeserve.co.uk
  • andy.martin@thorne.doncaster.sch.uk

• Working Mathematically Reviewed
  The printable form of the Working Mathematically Process (see Working Mathematically link on the left) is now available as a Word Document or as a PDF document. The document has been reviewed and has become two pages. The first is a one page summary of our work which is useful background. You could find it valuable when briefing colleagues about the possibilities of working with the Task Centre Project. The second page is a framework students paste to the inside cover of their maths journal, or teachers use to guide a wall display - or both!

• Christmas & New Year Wishes
  Between now and the end of January, there may be updates to this site, but there will be no further eNewsletters until February 2005. The Southern Hemisphere is preparing for Christmas, Summer Holidays and New Year Celebrations. We are about to have a ball!

  However, we are still 'open for business' and would be very happy to receive any emails, phone contacts or orders.

  The Task Centre team wishes all our schools and supporters a warm and wonderful Christmas period and a peaceful, challenging and fruitful 2005.

• Did you miss the November News?
  If so you missed information about:
  1. How Task Centres began.
  2. Support for developing Task Dossiers.
  3. Release of the updated Teachers' Handbook.
  4. Reminder of a discount on tasks for Maths300 members.
  5. Information from a company which supplies plastic boxes for storing tasks.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

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