Here you will find information about winners of the Task Writing contests held in late 2011 and early 2012. The task writing contests evolved into Web Jams, which are where a small group of interested educators meet online for 2 one-hour sessions held a week apart focused on a standard (or a group of related standards) and writing tasks for that standard. If you are a registered user of Illustrative Mathematics (registration is free!) and interested in participating in a Web Jam, please sign up here to be contacted when one comes up. Please note that there is limited space in each Web Jam.

How Tasks Should Look

The Illustrative Mathematics team would like to encourage participants to review some of the tasks already published on the website. Here are some tasks worth looking at:

2.OA, NBT Saving Money 2
7.G Eight Circles
A-SSE Animal Populations

Because the tasks are entered into the database in a particular way, the format is important. Also keep in mind that all task submissions must include at least one complete solution; here is a  Word template that shows the components that need to be included. Here are the criteria our reviewers use when evaluate a task submitted to the website; a task must meet all 8 criteria (and fill a need for us) to be published. Please submit tasks in Word format or LaTeX, along with a pdf if possible. To learn more about what makes a good mathematical task, read this article by Kristin Umland.

Contest Winners

We are pleased to announce a few of the winners of our task writing contests from 2012 (in alphabetical order) whose tasks are available at the Illustrative Mathematics website!

Patrick Barringer — His tasks are G-GMD Centerpiece and G-GMD Doctor’s Appointment.

James E. Bialasik and Breean Martin — Teachers, Sweet Home CSD, New York. Their task is titled 8.EE Cell Phone Plans.

Miriam L. Clifford — Carroll University, Waukesha, WI. Her task is titled 2.MD Hand Span Measures.

Jason Dyer — Teacher, Tucson Unified School District. His task is titled 2.MD The Longest Walk.

Karen Gerow — University of Georgia. Her task is titled 6.G Christo’s Building.

Ryan Glen — Teacher, McKissick Elementary. His task is titled 5.G Battleship Using Grid Paper.

Andrea Graf — The Skokie School, District 36, Winnetka, IL. Her task is titled “5.MD Where’s the Beef?”

Melissa Hancock and Sherri Martinie — Mathematics Consultants, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. Their task is titled 4.OA Double Plus One.

Travis Lemon — Teacher, American Fork Junior High School, Utah. He has two tasks in development and two posted titled 7.RP Cooking with the Whole Cup and 8.EE Find the Change.

Dan Meyer — Doctoral student, Stanford University, California. His task is titled 8.F High School Graduation.

Michelle Mourtgos — Teacher, Grantsville Junior High School, Tooele County School District, UT. Her task is titled 8.G Comparing Snow Cones.

Nora Oswald — Teacher, Jim Thorpe Area School District, Pennsylvania. Her task is titled 8.G Flower Vases.