What will you do on your 66th birthday? Well if you are Emeritus Professor of Mathematics Neville de Mestre, creator of the Task Centre concept, you:
- fly from the Gold Coast to Melbourne in the morning
- give a lunchtime lecture on the Mathematics of Body Surfing at Melbourne University
- take a train out to the Task Centre headquarters in Mooroolbark to update yourself with the latest developments
- get a lift back to Melbourne for dinner with University colleagues.
Your students might find it interesting to know more about the life of the Professor/Surfer who began, in 1975/6, the Task Centre work from which they now benefit. For our part we were delighted to welcome Neville to the Distribution Centre.
| Neville de Mestre and Ina Koetsier (Distribution Manager) exploring the rows of tasks waiting to be placed in schools. | 
|
We would have preferred to spend two days with him rather than two hours, none-the-less it was a useful time for all of us. Thirty years on, Neville's passion for learning mathematics through hands-on problem solving is undiminished.
|
I like this one - 2d/3d geometry, number and algebra in the same task. Neville exploring Fold Up Houses, one of the three new tasks introduced in May. |
One reason Neville visited us was that he is off to Bremen, Germany, in September to spend a week exploring the Task Centre concept with German educators. Of course this is the week after he defends his Iron Man title in the surf off the coast of Italy. We wished him well in both adventures and loaded him up with a pile of tasks for Germany ... and a packet of Nutri Grain for Italy. Find out more about:
- Neville and the first Task Centre.
- Neville the Emeritus Professor of Mathematics.
- Neville the Sporting Champion.
From the email:
G'day Doug,
We held a Number Day today at Thorne. Approximately 100 students per lesson were involved (600 in the day). We had a magician doing number tricks, a calculator expert using technology, internet cafe, bingo and a task centre challenge. I have had over 100 students working on Soma Cube 2 today. Nearly all can build it, and many returned later in the day to my table to show me they could build it again. Fastest time recorded was 6 seconds!
Andy Martin, Thorne Grammar School, UK
- Reviews of Maths300 have been added to Iceberg Information link. If you haven't come across our sister site before, these will assist your research into its value.
- Poster Problem Clinic section added to the Integrating Tasks link.
Last month I ran the second in a series of Maths on the Move workshops for the same group of Independent Schools teachers in South Australia. The teachers had taken one task away from the first session challenged to make use of it and report at the next meeting. One teacher made a point of saying that tasks were well worth the money.
She had taken Rod Mats and thought she could easily make a class set of the material. Finding and cutting the 1cm square section timber wasn't too hard. Colouring multiple numbers of the 10 different lengths in 10 different colours was achievable. But never again does she, her son or her husband ever want to see a piece of sandpaper after smoothing off the hundreds of 1cm square edges created by the saw cuts.
The material in this task might be considered a special case, but there is a story behind the materials in every task.
Sometimes we look at task and say: That's just a bunch of counters with number stickers - I could do that!. And so you could ... if you were only making one copy. Truth is that stickers in the right size to print in bulk are not commercially available. So:
- First the sticker paper has to be cut to size on a printer's guillotine - just deep enough to separate, but not deep enough to pass through the backing paper.
- Then a template has to be designed to print as necessary from a laser printer in the office.
- Then one by one the stickers have to be peeled off the backing paper and attached to hundreds of counters.
- And that's just to keep 20 copies of one task in stock!
A sure way to become one of these friends is to tell Ina whenever you find sets of toy farm animals. We are always looking for supplies and several times have purchased all the stock at local Toys 'R' Us stores!
This is your early warning signal!
The basic price of a task has not changed since July 1 2000 (apart from items effected by currency fluctuation). However, every year our suppliers put up their prices to us. In that time too postage charges have increased. Costs of making tasks have risen, but we have strongly resisted changing our prices to match and have sought efficiencies in production. We strive to supply quality products and services at the most reasonable prices.
However, near the end of this year, probably around September, we will have to review the cost of a task and that will necessitate a full review of prices. Please build this into any budgets you prepare for the next year.
- At this stage we can't say how much the increase will be. We can only say that it will be a fair one.
- The special service to Maths300 members of 5% discount for task orders of 50 or more if the order quotes your Maths300 number, will continue.
If so you missed information about:
- release of three new tasks
- two wonderful young mathematicians and their Size 13 Sphinx
- tasks for home and school
- release of iceberg information about Task 184, Reverse.
