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Task Centre News

June 2003

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• Maths With Attitude Years 5 & 6
  We have finally done it - and it has been worth waiting for! The Maths With Attitude kits for Years 5 & 6 have been completed. See the Resources link on the left for full details.
  Up to 25 weeks of:
  • hands-on, small group problem solving, and
  • whole class investigations, some extended by software
  is now available at EACH of Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. These kits of tasks and Maths300 lessons are supported by a manual which includes week by week Planners. All materials have been extensively trialed and the teaching craft captured by the Manual and CD-ROM offers significant opportunities for Self-directed Professional Development.
  Work has begun on similar kits for Years 7 & 8. Watch for release towards the end of 2003.
  [画像:MWA Primary Kits]

• Same or Different Shared
  In the April/May News (see below) it was mentioned that Cliff Daniel from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, ATM, UK, had offered an insight in to the reason behind the solution of the Same or Different task. Therefore when we were asked to share the task with the NRICH Online Maths Club, it seemed fair exchange. Their versions of our work can be found in two forms on the NRICH Site. [画像:Same or Different Task]

  Same or Different - Primary Version: This task addresses the UK National Numeracy Handling Data Strategy for Years 5 & 6 as follows...

  • Year 5: Discuss the chance and likelihood of particular events.
  • Year 6: Use the language associated with probability to discuss events, including those with equally likely outcomes.

  In A Box - Secondary Version: This task addresses the UK National Numeracy Handling Data Strategy for Years 7 to 9 as follows...

  • Year 7: Use vocabulary and ideas of probability, drawing on experience.
    Understand and use the probability scale from 0 to 1; find and justify probabilities based on equally likely outcomes in simple contexts; identify all the possible mutually exclusive outcomes of a single event.
  • Year 8: Find and record all mutually exclusive outcomes for single events and two successive events in a systematic way, using diagrams and tables.
  Teachers with access to Maths300, see Web Sites link opposite, have the additional resource of a whole class investigation based on the task that is extended with a wonderful piece of software.

• Other Problem Solving Sites
  This professional exchange with NRICH reminds us that there are other great problem solving sites out there. The Mathematical Association of Victoria has been collecting a list of Task Centre related ones for many years, so that link has been added to our Web Sites link opposite.

• Poly Plug
  Poly Plug have long been listed in the Resources link on the left as a partner to Task Centre activities because the material can be used to turn many tasks into whole class investigations. The Poly Plug site has recently been updated to detail these activities, so that teachers don't have to spend time thinking up these applications for themselves. Some 20 pages of ideas have been added relating to 27 tasks. In addition Poly Plug has many other uses in Maths Education at a range of levels. The Resources link has been updated to give direct access to these complementary ideas.

Keep smiling,
Doug.

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