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July 2011
In this month's News you will find:
 Time For A Change: New Tasks / New Life
Sphinx Refreshed
PD from MC: Term 3 Courses
Price Changes
Walk The Plank
New from Maths300
Educators for Africa
Task of the Month
Task 166, Sphinx
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- Time for a Change: New Tasks / New Life
On July 1st 2011, nineteen years to the day since the first Mathematics Task Centre Project workshop, an entirely recreated set of tasks was released by our Mathematics Task Centre. There are currently 241 tasks in the set. The photos below show just a few.
- New presentation
- More colour
- More focus on working like a mathematician
- Crisper, clearer language
- Fresh, modern look and feel
- Same huge range of challenges for all ages and abilities
This hands-on problem solving set is unique. There is nothing else like it in the world. Every task is both a professional learning tool for teachers and an invitation to students to work like a mathematician.
All orders after July 1st will receive these tasks. If you would like to keep your current equipment and update your task cards, contact our Distribution Manager, Ina Koetsier, 03 9726 8316 or inak@blackdouglas.com.au
   
   
   
- Sphinx Refreshed
Task 166, Sphinx, has an amazing history. It has been used by so many teachers to help so many students learn so much. Over the decades much of this has been collected so that the depth and documentation of this one task shows how much learning can be accessible through every other task. To correspond to the release of our new tasks, all this information has been refreshed and reorganised for easier access.
- Perhaps you haven't used Sphinx for a while? Perhaps it's time to look again.
- Perhaps you haven't seen Sphinx before? Perhaps it's time to take your first look.
Begin your Adventure of the Sphinx at the cameo below, or in the Link List with either Iceberg of the Sphinx or Sphinx Album. But in whichever way you begin, be prepared to get hooked.
- Price Changes
Yes prices have changed, but Ina always does everything she can to keep them as low as possible for schools. This time though she has pulled off a miracle. Some prices, tasks for example, just had to go up because so many suppliers have put up their prices to us. But somehow, she has found ways to bring other prices down. Here is a summary:
| Price Up |
Price Up but discounted |
Price Down |
Tasks
... $16.50 each
Task Centre Starter Kit
... $825
Maths With Attitude
... $450 per kit |
Task Centre Kit (100 tasks)
... discounted to $1,567.50 from $1,650
Task Centre Kit Package (100 tasks + PD)
... discounted to $2,550 from $2,750
Working Mathematically Curriculum Pack
... discounted to $3,564 from $3,882.50 |
Working Mathematically with Infants
... now $396 (was $429)
Points of View Mixed Media unit
... now $275 (was $302.50)
Poly Plug (1 - 24 sets)
... now $13.50 each (was $14.96)
Poly Plug (25 - 99 sets)
... now $12.25 each (was $13.75)
Poly Plug (100+ sets)
... now $11 each (was $12.10)
Poly Plug (Calculating Changes members)
... now $11 each for any number (was $12.10)
Poly Plug Game Pack
... now $40 (was $42.46)
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Prices include GST, but freight is added to all orders.
If a resource is not mentioned above, its price has not changed, except for:
- Starting Maths300
- Starting Maths300 & Tasks
- Chance & Data Replacement Unit
which have been discontinued.
Find more details in Resources & Ordering or Price List or Order Form in the Link List below.
- Walk The Plank
Task 131, Walk The Plank, was added to the Cameo Library last month. Its publication brought this testimony from Michelle Moore, Kurnai College.
Hi Doug
I have just been reading the MAV newsletter online and followed the link to your site.
I have fond memories of the Walk the Plank activity which I did with a group of Year 7 students about six years ago. It was a sunny autumn afternoon and we went out to the basketball courts with lots of chalk and drew our lines complete with boats and sharks. The students thought they were just playing a game because it was a nice day, and they had the most incredible fun. When I started the introduction to operations with directed numbers next week they were amazed to see the connections. "This is just like the shark game!"
It was great to see that the kids experienced an 'aha!' moment. I have been teaching only seniors for the last few years, but I sometimes miss the excitement of the little kids.
Thanks for that heartfelt contribution Michelle. Thanks also to the MAV for their continuing support of our work.
- New from Maths300
If you are registered for Maths300 eNews you will have already received notice of Lesson 181 Natalie's LCM Task (lowest common multiple) and three new Classroom Contributions. Natalie's LCM is a wonderful example of taking a closed textbook style question and shifting it to an open question and then to an extended investigation. The lesson also involves software, so don't forget to download the latest version. Each of the Classroom Contributions - to Multo, Cylinder Volumes and Trigonometry Walk - is also worth a look. The richness of Maths300 has always expanded because members have taken the time to share their inspirations through the Classroom Contributions pages.
Natalie's LCM Task can be used to enhance Maths With Attitude Number & Computation kits in Years 5/6 or Years 7/8 or Years 9/10.
An while we are on Maths300, are you using Maths300 ETuTE to support your in-house professional learning sessions? It's a great resource for learning more and more about the depth of the site and its applicability to all year levels. See Link List below.
- Educators 4 Africa
Aaron Peeters, Ghana, and Barbara Kerr, Tanzania, were featured in last month's eNews. Since then, they have had further discussion and Aaron has established a new web site to support - and draw support from - people working in developing countries.
Dear Colleagues,
Following a discussion with my dear colleague Barb recently, she reminded me how difficult it is for those of us working in the
developing world to connect with other educators and to share ideas on a day to day basis. This can be quite limiting. Drawing inspiration from the wonderful benefits I have received from connecting with other educators from around the world since coming to Ghana, I decided to make a web site that would help facilitate this connecting and sharing process.
If you are interested, I hope that you will join in and make an active contribution:
https://sites.google.com/site/educators4africa/home
If it isn't for you, I am requesting that you do me the favour of passing on this email to anyone that you think may be interested. It
would be great if you could please forward this on through your networks also.
Thanks always for your help and support.
Aaron
- Task of the Month
One, very special, new cameo this month.
- Sphinx is documented extensively as model of the richness available in all 241 tasks. It is easy to state and easy to start. It can be used as an invitation to two students to work like a mathematician or as a whole class investigation. The opening challenge sits on a huge iceberg of investigation involving many mathematical delights. It is simply to put four of the same shape together to form a larger version of the same shape. By asking the questions a mathematician might ask, this leads on to work in perimeter and area, patterns and powers, similar shapes, proportion, value relations and fractions and more.
Click a photo to access its cameo, or access all current cameos through the Link List below.
Keep smiling,
Doug.
Link List
- Did you miss June?
If so you missed information about:
- Conversations about working like a mathematician from Tanzania to Tasmania
- Term 3 PD Courses (fortunately listed again above)
- Additions to the cameo of Task 154, 4 Arm Shapes
- Additions to the Poly Plug & Tasks list
- New tasks and new prices (expanded above)
- Iceberg Information about two Tasks of the Month
(Tasks 131, 132)
- ...and more...
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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).
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