| This task could have been presented without materials, as a pencil and paper exercise. What differences do the materials bring to the learning? Across the collection of over 200 tasks there is a deliberate range of type, colour and feel of materials. However, tasks are chosen for deeper reasons that this. One is that the task on the card is the tip of an iceberg. For example, because of the materials, this task can be accessed by children in their first school year. However it has extensions into Year 11. Notes about these extensions are the basis of a lesson in the companion Maths300 project. |
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Many of the problems in the kit are classics from mathematical history. These two are working on Soma Cubes. Unlike text book type problems which generally require a procedural response with one answer, Many tasks have more than one answer. Soma Cubes has over 200, but that doesn't seem to make it any easier to find the first. Notice that the presentation of this task card is different from the previous one. This card is from the Task Centre Kit for Aboriginal Students. |
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| All tasks have developed from the work of committed teachers over the decades since the end of the 1970s. They are not chosen just to 'keep students occupied on a Friday afternoon'. There are principles which guide selection and once you become conscious of them, you can apply them for yourself. This teacher has invented a task, something like What's In The Bag? which involves the child predicting and recording the colour of the cube she will select from the collection 'hidden' on the seat behind her. |
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| Another guiding principle for task selection is that the three lives of a task. A task can be used as an invitation for two students to work like a mathematician; as a whole class lesson; or as a deeper investigation guided by a worksheet. To use a task with a whole class you need sufficient equipment. In many cases extra blocks, tiles or counters are easily obtained within a school. Sometimes teachers show more initiative. With the help of the friendly handy-person at her local hardware superstore, this teacher has made multiple copies of Tower of Hanoi using different size washers. |
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| Sometimes though the only way to run the whole class lesson depends on having enough of the right equipment. For example Cube Nets simply can't be explored in the same depth without plenty of these Geoshapes. |
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