Task Centre News December 2008 through January 2009 Best wishes to you all for a peaceful family Christmas, a happy New Year celebration and a great holiday!

933 tasks placed in schools during November. 311,134 placed since the project began in July 1992. We offer an email news service from each of the three key projects linked to this site. If you would like to receive updates from the Task Centre Project, Maths300 or Calculating Changes send an email to doug@blackdouglas.com.au: In the subject line write Subscribe Maths. In the body of message state which projects you want to subscribe to, or simply write Subscribe All. Add your name and preferred email address. Please feel free to distribute this information.

In this month's News you will find: Scottish Teachers Impress HMI Tasks of the Month Task 76, Tube Toss Task 77, Tricube Constructions A Task 78, Which View? An Article from History

Scottish Teachers Impress HMI Through the efforts of Margaret Robertson (recently retired), who has played many roles related to mathematics adviser in the district over more than a decade, several Glasgow schools are now using Maths With Attitude in their curriculum. One of these is Port Glasgow High School which is headed by Marc Barry. Marc and the team have recently impressed Her Majesty's Inspectors with the way they are using this resource. Marc tells us: We have just been inspected by HMIe and they were very impressed with Maths with Attitude, especially the use of the Tasks period. We had a long and interesting debate over future developments. Should we use more of the Maths300 lessons (presently one per week) and less of the "body of knowledge" stuff needed for the dreaded exam system? They have asked me to write a piece for the good practice section of their web site. Congratulations to everyone on the team at Port Glasgow for your inspiring work. When the article is mounted we hope to inform readers of the link, so they can share your wisdom. Marc also ran a session on Maths With Attitude at the Scottish Maths Conference earlier this year and has been invited to repeat the session at the 2009 conference. Tasks of the Month Three new cameos this month. Tube Toss explores a range of probability experiments using a unique piece of equipment. It encourages both empirical and theoretical approaches to chance using a restricted sample space. Unlike with a dice, several of the possible experiments yield non-equal probabilities. Tricube Constructions A offers students 'looking down on' views of buildings and encourages them to construct the buildings knowing they are made from four Tricubes Which View? continues exploration of the links between 3D objects and their 2D representations by challenging students to build objects from plan and elevation views using unit cubes.      Click a photo to access its cameo, or access all current cameos through the Link List below. An Article from History Just when we thought we had migrated all the Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV) task centre material to our site, we found one more. In 1996 Marita Miesen wrote an article for the MAV conference on the introduction and operation of a Task Centre in her school. Poignantly titled What Worked. What Did Not. it contains many experiences and observations that are important reading today for anyone interested in using tasks. See the Link List below. Link List Task Cameos - a list of all currently available What Worked. What Did Not.: One school's experience with a Task Centre Did you miss the November News? If so you missed information about: A tribute to Sue Davis. Tasks at Moonee Ponds West. Links to important historical articles donated by the MAV. An independent professional learning review of our Task Centre Package workshop. Iceberg Information about three Tasks of the Month (Tasks 127, 161 & 182) and important additions to the Cameos for Tasks 8, 43 and 45. ...and more... Keep smiling, Doug. Previous News October 2008 ... September 2008 ... August 2008 ... July 2008 May/June 2008 ... April 2008 ... March 2008 ... February 2008 ... Dec.2007/ Jan.2008 November 2007 ... October 2007 ... August/September 2007 ... July 2007 June 2007 ... May 2007 ... April 2007 ... March 2007 ... February 2007 ... Dec. 2006/ Jan. 2007 November 2006 ... October 2006 ... September 2006 ... August 2006 ... July 2006 June 2006 ... May 2006 ... April 2006 ... March 2006 ... February 2006 ... Dec. 2005/ Jan. 2006 November 2005 ... October 2005 ... September 2005 ... August 2005 ... July 2005 June 2005 ... May 2005 ... April 2005 ... March 2005 ... February 2005 ... Dec. 2004/ Jan. 2005 November 2004 ... October 2004 ... September 2004 ... August 2004 ... July 2004 June 2004 ... April/May 2004 ... March 2004 ... February 2004 December 2003 ... October 2003 ... August/September 2003 ... July 2003 June 2003 ... April/May 2003 ... March 2003 ... February 2003 ... January 2003 December 2002 ... November 2002 ... October 2002 ... September 2002 ... March 2002 December 2001 ... October 2001 Follow this link to Task Centre Home page.