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Maths Cafe

This is where you’ll find a collection of Bev’s thoughts, insights and relevant web links.  As a Cafe, it’s a place for you to relax and browse. You’ll find mathematics facts and snippets and helpful hints for making maths exciting and relevant. If you are a new subscriber it’s worth making a nice cup of coffee for yourself and checking out as many posts as you can  –  you never know what you’ll discover. Everyone can access this part of the website, even non-subscribers.

Why did we include this photograph?

When you look at each photograph it may not at first be obvious why it can be used for maths. We will leave it up to your imagination in most cases.

If you look at this sign, how many different mathematical possibilities do you see?

How many kilometres will you travel if you leave Orange and drive to Cowra? Is it further to drive from Bathurst to Orange or from Orange to Cowra? If you start at Bathurst in which direction is Orange? When was each of the 3 towns established? What is the current population of each town? If you keep driving past Cowra, what town will you pass through next? How far from Cowra is this town? Where does Highway 33 go to and from? What about Highway 31? About where would you be if you are 49 km from Bathurst?

What other challenges can you create using this photograph as the stimulus?


Where to now with subtraction?

Bev wrote this article many years ago when she discovered so many students continued to find subtraction difficult to tackle even at the end of Year 6. It seems to boil down to 6 key issues that all schools need to consider.

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The Gilded Image

In another life, Bev has been painting in her studio, The Gilded Image, since 1996, specialising in medieval-style images with gilded backgrounds, inspired by the beauty of gold-leaf and the luminous colours in medieval paintings. She is passionate about creating and recreating images from medieval life in general, archangels and angels in particular.

You can also browse through Bev’s non-maths photograph collections with favourite images from across the world.  

Click here to see examples of her medieval-style paintings at www.thegildedimage.com.