Task Centre NewsFebruary 2010
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1238 tasks placed in schools during January. 321,576 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:
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In this month's News you will find:
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In January, through the exhaustive work of the Executive Director, Board and Staff, the United Nations through the International Labor Organisation (ILO) granted an application for funding to pursue a 22 month program to counter child labour in two central districts of Uganda. Child labour (children from 7 to 17 years) is abhorrent to the policies of the Uganda government, but none-the-less remains a continuing problem in the country.
Would your primary or early secondary students rather be in school or smashing boulders by hand into gravel and loading the scree onto trucks?
Key primary objectives of this project, funded through a local contribution combined with the grant from the ILO International Project on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) are that:
But what has this got to do with Maths education?
Answer: I was stunned by the detail and breadth of RYDA's application, in particular, from the mathematics point of view, the content of the 7 page spreadsheet budgeting for every required item for 22 months down to litres of fuel and bottles of water. Also by the exchange rate involved purchasing in Ugandan shillings and converting to US dollars, the currency of the ILO. It seems to me to be a wonderful set of data for an integrated mathematics/social education unit around Years 10 & 11. So much more meaningful than studying the accountants of a text book company from a mythical city.
No doubt there are creative primary teachers who could also build a learning unit around the project. In 2008 Lyse Lake and the Year 5/6 team from Kalinda Primary School built an extensive African study generated by first exploring RYDA's mission.
You can research more about the RYDA Child Labour Project at the link below. I have access to, and am permitted to share, the draft report and budget documents. If you become interested, drop me an email: doug@blackdouglas.com.au
Marc has just informed us that Port Glasgow's work has been published in a Scottish journal and I have been informed that two articles I was invited to write for UK publications have been accepted. At time of writing this eNews both articles are in final edit. The three articles are:
The calendar is filling, so if you are thinking about professional development for the rest of the year, now is the time to contact us and reserve a place.
For those schools using Maths With Attitude (MWA) in Year 3 and above, WMI is designed to integrate with the program you are already building. With the WMI/MWA set it will be possible to build a best practice Working Mathematically curriculum from Year K to Year 10.
Working Mathematically with Infants is only available to Calculating Changes members. Each kit contains manual, CD-ROM of activities extracted from Calculating Changes and 20 Poly Plug. See more at the link below. WMI will be available at the end of February and to celebrate its release there is a special price for orders received in Term 1 2010.
To resource Swedish teachers who are taking steps towards building their curriculum around learning to work like a mathematician, Kul has put together a kit of resources they are calling Matematikverkstäder (Maths Factories) which contain:
Keep smiling,
Doug.
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