Maths300 FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

I've seen enough, I love it! How do I subscribe???
-- Simply print out the subscription form and fax it to 1300 780 545 (international +61 3 9639 1616) or send it to Curriculum Corporation, PO Box 177, Carlton South VIC 3053

I've sent in my subscription form but haven't heard anything. Am I able to access Maths300?
-- You should allow for 5-10 working days between the time you send/fax in your subscription form and the time you receive your confirmation letter (which includes your username and password). If it has been longer than two (2) weeks please email maths300@curriculum.edu.au to confirm that we have received your subscription.

I've forgotten my password and there's no-one else around who knows it… help!
-- Contact maths300@curriculum.edu.au with your school name, username and contact phone number or email address.

I'm interested in having professional development to support the activities in Maths300 and/or Maths Task Centre products? Who do I talk to?
-- You should contact Doug Williams at Doug.Williams@curriculum.edu.au or by phone/fax on (03) 9726 8316. See our Professional Development page for further details.

Would you describe all Maths300 investigations as open-ended?
Not all Maths300 lessons are open-ended, but many are. The purpose of Maths300 is simply to engage teachers in debate about the features of better maths lessons and 'open-endedness' is only one feature to consider. Group work, integrated software, estimation, first hand data, and range of others take the focus in various lessons.
If by open-ended you mean students choosing their own direction within a problem, then one example is Lesson 128 Cars In A Garage

How can a teacher easily and quickly find and select a Maths300 open-ended investigation that links with the curriculum area being studied (or studied last month)?
There are a couple of ways to use the Maths300 search facilities. If you go to the Lesson Library at:
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/maths300/library.php3
the second column is year level and you can resort the list based on this column. The default setting for the list is the alphabetic order of the lesson names. If you want the more 'senior lessons' first, click the down arrow above the second column. Then use the code for Strand and the name of the lesson to make your choices of lessons to review.
The other facility is the search engine at:
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/maths300/search.php3
Set the drop down boxes and tick boxes to what you require and click Search. For example, on the day this answer was written, a search with only the 'open ended' box ticked turned up 63 lessons. Each of them is presented with a couple of paragraphs of summary information to help you decide which ones to review.
If you then did the same search but added the keyword 'fractions' the engine offers 10 lessons.
These same two services are offered to non-members through the Free Sample Tour link, but they can only access a 3 or 4 page summary of the lesson, rather than all the bits and pieces, Investigation Sheets, software, plans etc.

I've downloaded a lesson but the companion software doesn't work. What do I do?
If you are a Windows user check that you have installed the installer file (see Software Notes).

Mac users should check that they have StuffIt Expander 5.5 for Mac to uncompress the software (see Software Notes).

How can I know which lessons have software without accessing each one individually?
By using the Search engine. Set the attributes in the drop down boxes to All Levels and All Strands, but choose only the Companion Software button in Lesson Features. The search engine will provide the current full list of software lessons.

I'd like to use student workings from the software as part of assessment. Do I need to check the individual software on each students machine?
You can look over their shoulders as you're teaching the class to monitor their progress. Or you might like to have them include their working as part of a written project. Look over our suggestions for Recording Students' Work and Controlling Pictures which are useful for project work.

My question isn't here / I need further help... who do I contact?
Contact maths300@curriculum.edu.au with your query (including your user number and contact details) and one of our friendly Maths300 support staff will get back to you.