News

Since December five schools have joined the list which have invested in the eTask Package - 1 in each of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Northern Territory. These schools will now be able to create their own problem solving Task Library and use the experience as a central focus of their professional development initiatives. Down the track they will be wanting to create units of work that integrate tasks into the curriculum as a central core rather than an additional activity. There are a number of ways Mathematics Centre can help and they are all driven by the Working Mathematically Process. (See Link List below)

• Content Finder
  1. When you know the specific content you want to tease out with your unit, go to the Task Cameo Content Finder (see Link List below).
  2. Look down the left column until you find it and any other related content. In the right column beside every content item is a list of tasks which involve that content.
  3. Each task is linked to its Task Cameo (our name for teaching notes). Research and choose.
  4. Go to the Unit Planning Models link below and select a structure for using the tasks in your classroom.

• Picture Puzzles
  Every task is the tip of an iceberg. Sometimes that iceberg can be uncovered using an Investigation Guide which introduces questions beyond those on the card. Some Picture Puzzles menus are designed as Investigation Guides to extend particular tasks. Each menu has a Picture Puzzle for each of 5 tasks.
  1. When you know the broad content strand you want to explore with your unit, go to the Picture Puzzles Menus (see Link List below).
  2. Select the menu that suits you. Click the menu title to find its teaching notes. Research. Each Picture Puzzle slide show can be used to guide a whole class investigation and/or the menu can be an invitation for students to choose (with a partner) their own investigation. Perhaps for assessment of the unit.
  3. Go to the Unit Planning Models link below and select a structure for using the Picture Puzzles and their related tasks in your classroom.
  Picture Puzzles are available either menu by menu ($66 each) or as the whole set, so consider purchasing unit by unit as you need them. Once you own a menu it is yours to use as you wish within your school.

• Menu Maths @ Café Conundrum
  Café Conundrum presents four menus of investigations built around using Poly Plug - counters are an alternative. Each menu explores a different content strand.
  1. When you know the broad content strand you want to explore with your unit, go to the Menu Maths @ Café Conundrum link (see Link List below).
  2. Choose the menu that suits you. Click the menu title to find its teaching notes which include the information from the related Task Cameos. Research.
  3. Go to the Unit Planning Models link below and select a structure for using Menu Maths @ Café Conundrum. You will not need the related tasks.
  Menu Maths @ Café Conundrum supplies the set of four menus as a PDF published for exclusive use as you wish in your school (or personal classroom). Each set is $11 and allows unlimited printing.

• Unit Planning Models
Generally a Working Mathematically unit will include:
• Time for students to select and explore their own investigation.
• Time to model for students what it means to work like a mathematician on an investigation.
• Time to practise skills connected with the unit.
The image above helps to keep this in mind during planning.

If you would rather not build your own units from scratch - which can be a great team experience - then Mathematics Centre offers a complete core curriculum at all levels from K - 10. It has two parts:

• Working Mathematically with Infants (K - 2)
  You will need to be a Calculating Changes member and have a supply of Poly Plug and calculators to access 60 weeks of planned investigative work in number; 10 weeks in each semester of each year level.

  Membership is for the whole school so Years 3 - 6 teachers will be able to find excellent Calculating Changes activities using either the Calculating Changes Year Level Finder or the Calculating Changes Content Finder. See Link List below.

• Maths With Attitude (3 - 10)
  You will need a set of 20 tasks specific to each unit. There are four units at each pair of year levels (3/4, 5/6, 7/8. 9/10). The units in each set are Chance & Measurement, Number & Computation, Pattern & Algebra, Space & Logic. Between them, each set of units offers 25 weeks of planned investigative work for each of the two year levels. See Link List below for more details.

Task 38, The Mushroom Hunt

Six people go looking for mushrooms. Each one has a basket. When they return they compare the numbers of mushrooms in their baskets. They discover two things: Adding up the numbers gives a total of 63. Grouping the baskets in different ways gives sub-totals equal to every number from 1 to 63. The problem is, of course, how many mushrooms are in each basket. It can be tackled at every level from an exploration of doubling, to an introduction of powers and indices, to the concept of binary numbers, to an investigation of multiplicative (exponential-like) growth.

The cameo supports teachers to explore any or all of these content items and contains a journal entry from a Year 3 student whose recording process has them knocking on the door of discovering binary numbers.

In the eTask Package this task is in the 'easy to make' set because all you need is 6 small containers (paper or plastic cups for example) and 63 pretend mushrooms (mushroom pegs as used in the commercial game MasterMind are great), but anything else small and not too flat (such as 1cm cubes) can work.

Task 100, Mirror Patterns 1

This task testifies that mathematically thinking is not only about numbers and letters. It is about reasoning guided by self-directed questioning. As students place the mirror (or mirrors in the later challenges) on the dumbbell card they must be asking themselves some or all of: What happens if...? Can I try the mirror in every possible position? Have I seen a similar problem before? These are mathematicians' questions.

Using spatial tasks as the core (a list is suggested in the cameo) it is easy to create a Working Mathematically unit of work in this content strand. Some (perhaps many) students will demonstrate they 'can do mathematics' in a unit with this content as opposed to a unit in number or algebra.

Mirror Patterns 1 is in the 'extra work' group of tasks in the eTask Package because there are two cards in the task and a board of dumbbell shapes to print, laminate and trim. Nothing tricky; it just takes a little more time that some other ones.