Task Centre News

March 2002

• Staying In Touch
  This brief news is just to keep you in touch with some recent important updates. Did you know?...
  • Two new tasks have been added to the collection. They are included in the most recent form of the Task Catalogue in the Documents link on the left.
    The Hole In The Triangle, Task 219, is a spatial paradox which appears to produce a square unit of area from nowhere. It is similar to Task 155, 64 = 65 which, like this, one has an iceberg that includes Fibonacci Numbers and Trigonometry.
    Smooth Edge Tiles, Task 220, is a great addition to the collection of physically based algebra problems.
  • Collingwood College and Merri Creek Primary School, Victoria have been added to the list of schools that welcome Task Centre visitors. See the School Visits link.
  • Maths With Attitude is a new series developed to help create happy, healthy, cheerful, productive, inspiring classrooms. It supports schools with a package that documents week by week integrated use of the tasks in conjunction with Maths300. Working Mathematically is the scaffold. See the Products link opposite.
  • You can print this frame and sit under a tree in the sun to read it. (I take no responsibility for the presence or absence of sun in local areas!)
• UK News
  Andy Martin's project (detailed in the December News) seems to be going well. He now has students in England problem solving over the Internet with students from Sweden, USA and Australia. Our tasks are the focus of the puzzling.

  However I think Andy is a little devious. His email reports that Garden Beds, Truth Tiles, Win At The Fair and Eric The Sheep all went well, but his next assignment for the kids was Hearts & Loops. Try explaining the solution of that to someone else over the Internet.

  Andy is also keen on The Great Domino Sum Challenge which you can find in the Classroom Contributions section of the Dominoes lesson (#66) on Maths300. Seems he ran a parent night where some parents brought along new solutions because they had become engrossed in the problem through their child's homework.

  Andy also ran a whole school (secondary school that is) curriculum day in mathematics. During the day one of the non-mathematics teachers also found a solution to the domino challenge and that has also been added to the link above.

  Full of beans as usual, Andy tells me he is collecting all this information about Dominoes as research for an article on the Task Centre Project that he hopes to publish for the 10th Anniversary.

• USA News
  Not quite so lucky perhaps is Sally Collins in Denver who's district is just coming through 6 weeks of mandated State testing that has temporarily shifted some of the development of their task centre work to the back burner. However:

  My math team has been spending the year solidifying our philosophical vision (no small task), writing goals, and agreeing on measures. We then collected information from all teachers regarding positives and barriers. The interesting thread that came out of it was that teachers felt overwhelmed by the amount of resources we have provided them and need help in managing those resources.

  One of the reasons for developing Maths With Attitude was to respond to a similar cry from teachers and schools who don't have the benefit of a 'Sally' and her team to lead them along this professional development path.

• Sinsa's Puzzle
  The INISSS (Improving Numeracy for Indigenous Secondary School Students) project in Tasmania has run an extensive professional development program for almost four years now that has been based around Tasks, Maths300 and Working Mathematically. You can read about the first stages of research in turning things around for Aboriginal students on the Task Centre Web site at:
  http://www.mav.vic.edu.au/PSTC/aborig/index.html

  The latest news from the research (which is managed by Rosemary Callingham, formerly University of Tasmania, and Patrick Griffin, University of Melbourne) is that the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students has continued to close over the four years. This consistent and extensive PD has resulted in big gains for all students. In particular, Indigenous girls are now scoring equally with non-Indigenous girls. Sinsa is one of those Aboriginal girls and her developing interest in Maths has led to this puzzle. To prepare yourself for it, tear a piece of paper into 10 tiles. Write the numbers 1 through 9 on them and leave one blank. Sinsa asks you to:

  Use the digits 1 - 9, and just one of them twice, to make the days of the year.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

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