Reflections: February, 2000

Contents of Volume 25, No. 1

Editorial

MANSW ANNUAL CONFERENCE 1999, POSITIVE THOUGHT AT PORT

• Opening Comments, Margaret Bigelow 1

SETTING THE SCENE

• Maths and the 21st century, Robyn Williams 2

REFLECTIONS ON NUMBER

• Why primes, factors and multiples? Why not?, Steve Thornton 3
• India's contribution to mathematics, James Taylor 5

REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING APPROACHES

• IMAGE, Karen Nixon 13
• Mathematics and cartoon humour, Allan White 15
• The Internet and mathematics, Norm Michener 18
• Mathematical modelling: Traditional applications, open investigations or a foot in each camp?,
• Allan White and John Hastings 22

REFLECTIONS ON ASSESSMENT

• High-quality assessment: A construct and framework, John E O'Brien 25
• Improving exam-marking efficiency and combating assessment misconceptions, Jim Farmer 30

REFLECTIONS ON TECHNOLOGY

• Graphic calculators: Students' views, Michael Cavanagh 34
• Graphic calculators and the 2/3 Unit courses, Gavin Ridley 36
• Graphic calculator &emdash; statistical plotting, Helen Michener 39

REFLECTIONS ON SENIOR MATHEMATICS

• Writing learning materials for the General Mathematics Stage 6 course, Jim Stamell 42
• Introducing inverse functions, Helen Bush 46
• Mathematical induction, Tony Lantry 47

REFLECTIONS ON MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC

• Mathematics and music, James Taylor 50

CONFERENCE

• Conference program 59
• Conference participants 62

Editorial

The 1999 Annual Conference held at Port Macquarie in September was another very successful event for the Mathematical Association of New South Wales (MANSW). This conference proceedings contains only those papers with a secondary focus, while the corresponding first issue of Square One contains papers with a K&endash;6 focus. A decision to separate the papers was necessary because of the large number of papers submitted for publication in previous years.

The first paper is a summary of some of the issues discussed by Robyn Williams in his keynote address. It is clear from his comments that it is not only teachers who are concerned with the future mathematics education of our children.

The conference theme, Positive Thought, was embraced by some sessions and is reflected in several papers contained in this issue of Reflections. Other papers reflect the diversity of conference themes. These include aspects of number, teaching approaches suitable for students from Years 7 to 12, assessment procedures, the use of technology, and the mathematics of music.

The section on teaching approaches makes clear links with the conference theme and suggests teaching ideas that could be used to inspire students in mathematics classrooms. Nixon presents a smorgasbord of ideas that have been successfully used at her school, while White encourages teachers to use cartoon humour when teaching mathematics. Norm Michener focuses on use of the Internet and White and Hastings address teachers' beliefs about the use of mathematical investigations.

A focus on particular aspects of number theory is presented in Thornton's paper, while Taylor's first paper is an historical examination of India's contribution to mathematics. In the last paper in this issue, Taylor's second contribution explores the links between mathematics and music.

Assessment issues are addressed by O'Brien and Farmer. O'Brien's formal examination of high-quality assessment presents a framework for consideration, while Farmer suggests an alternative assessment approach that he has successfully trialled in an undergraduate university course.

The imminent introduction of the new HSC Mathematics course was addressed by several presenters at the conference, as was the appropriate use of graphic calculators in mathematics classrooms. Stamell describes the challenges in writing materials for the new course. The papers by Bush and Lantry also examine aspects of teaching senior mathematics courses. Cavanagh describes a study of students' views about graphic calculators, while the papers by Ridley and Helen Michener present useful graphic calculator teaching ideas for use in senior classrooms.

Participants at the Annual Conference again feature on the cover. The photographs include presenters as well as interactions at the Conference Dinner. Carol Neville and Lynette Hunter must be thanked for their contribution to the collage on the cover.

Judy Anderson and Robert Yen