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News

March 2011

In this month's News you will find:

Tasks & Maths300

The Mathematics I Do

Tasks of the Month
Task 125, Farmyard Race Day
Task 126, Planets

792 tasks placed in schools during February.
330,081 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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Tasks & Maths300
When the new Maths300 was released last year the page linking Tasks to their companion Maths300 lessons was not included. A recent phone call confirmed the need for schools to be easily able to access that information, so we have created a new Tasks & Maths300 list within the Task Cameos page. Very appropriate since Maths300 lessons include much of the iceberg information about the tasks from which they are constructed.

The teacher who rang was particularly interested in the list because she wanted to add a Gold Star sticker to the relevant task bag so her staff would have a visual reminder of this additional information - a good idea we think.

See the Link List below for the Tasks & Maths300 list.

The Mathematics I Do
The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) in the United Kingdom publishes four on-line magazines and has a huge site useful to all of us who are continuing to strive to improve our mathematics teaching. In January Viv Brown, editor of their FE Magazine, asked me to write on the topic of The Mathematics I Do using a proforma previously used by an extensive list of authors. I liked the proforma because it gave me the opportunity to acknowledge some key colleagues who have influenced my career. However, since my piece was written in January, hallowed time of summer holiday, it also reflects a slightly easygoing approach to the topic. A bit of serious fun, or perhaps fun seriousness, you might say. The article has just been published in FE Magazine, Issue 20.

Incidently, FE stands for Further Education and teacher training. See the Link List below for connection to the magazine and choose the Mathematics I Do link when you get there.

Tasks of the Month
Two new cameos this month.

Farmyard Race Day involves considerable logical and spatial reasoning. There are two levels of problem on the card, both requiring the application of problem solving strategies, and lots of opportunity for extension.
Planets investigates the structure of our solar system by providing the materials and measurements to allow students to build a scale model that will fit in or near the classroom. The question What happens if the diameter of the planets are to the same scale as the distances? drives the investigation into remarkable visualisation of our place in space.

Click a photo to access its cameo, or access all current cameos through the Link List below.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

Link List

Tasks & Maths300 ...PDF file

The Mathematics I Do ...external link to NCETM FE Magazine

Task Cameo Library (135 tasks listed)

Did you miss February?
If so you missed information about:

A review of Maths300 ETuTE by Ian Lowe

Working Mathematically with Infants, a new PD program

A new video added to Cube Tube

An addition to Eric The Sheep cameo from Hillston Central School

Price rise notification

Iceberg Information about two Tasks of the Month
(Tasks 121, 124)

...and more...

Did You Know?

You can find tasks coded by Year Level and Curriculum Strand in the Task Centre Catalogue (PDF file).

The Activities link of Calculating Changes offers Content Finder & Year Level Finder tools.

Our Site Map acts as a Table of Contents to help you find what you need in Mathematics Centre.

You can search for lessons by Year Level, Curriculum Strand, Lesson Features & Keyword at Maths300.

You can connect Tasks to their Maths300 companion lesson using Tasks & Maths300 (a PDF file).

Previous News

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Continue exploring our history back to July 1992 through the Sense of History link.