BH Neumann Award for Brendan Case

Mr Brendan Case, an experienced South Australian mathematics teacher, received a BH Neumann Award from Trust Executive Director Peter Taylor and Trust Board member Will Morony at a function at the Lenzerheide Restaurant, Hawthorn, on Friday 02 June 2006.

Brendan Case, Peter Taylor, and Will Morony.

Helen and Brendan Case with twin daughters Nicole (left) and Joanna (right).

CITATION

Brendan was born at Quorn, in the north of South Australia, in 1947, and spent the first 14 years of his life in the northern part of the State before his family moved to Adelaide in 1961.

His schooling started in a one-teacher school and his secondary schooling was at Rostrevor College in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide. He enjoyed mathematics, in various forms, through his schooling and went on to attend Adelaide University and Adelaide Teachers College from 1965-1968.

His first appointment in 1969 was Peterborough High School, a small country high school in the mid north of the state, where he worked with a young and enthusiastic staff. It was during this year that he met Keith Hamann, who was a Mathematics consultant. Brendan became a close associate of Keith over many years, being inspired by Keith through many professional development opportunities to develop a number of his own activities.

When Keith became Superintendent of Mathematics in South Australia Brendan was at mathematics senior at Nailsworth and Morialta High schools, and during the time at Morialta Keith would regularly teach Applied Mathematics at Morialta as an extra above and beyond his duties. Some years later when Keith decided to return to teaching, he was appointed to Morialta as co-Mathematics senior and the two of them worked very effectively together.

One of the most significant influences on Brendan's teaching came about in the mid 1980s with the Mathematics Curriculum Teaching Project (MCTP) initiative and Will Morony was the SA coordinator of the program. Brendan and Will became involved together with the trialling of the project at Morialta. Brendan was impressed with the program, which added relevance and interest to the study and teaching of Mathematics. Brendan was inspired and excited by the pool of resources was exciting and used the ideas to develop other resources and activities.

The Mathematics consultants based at Wattle Park were also a source of great help to Brendan. One of these was Vern Treilibs, who worked hard to develop teaching activities and to provide valuable in-service for Mathematics teachers. In 1985 Vern was a catalyst in setting up study opportunities for teachers in operations research techniques. Brendan was one of a number of teachers who were able to take a term away from school to refresh his skills at the University of SA at the Levels campus. As well as attending lectures Brendan was able to develop project ideas for use in the class.

In the mid-1980s Brendan became South Australia's moderator for the Australian Mathematics Competition for the Westpac Awards. He has maintained this position up to the present and has had several stints on the problems committee.

In 1981, Brendan and his young family embarked on an exciting year on exchange to Canada, spending 12 months teaching at Forest Heights Collegiate, a large comprehensive high school in Kitchener, approximately one hour's drive from Toronto. The school was close to the University of Waterloo which was a strong supporter of school Mathematics and the Mathematics faculty supported the local Mathematics Association with professional development opportunities.

During the 1980s he was on the subject advisory committee for Mathematics at the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of SA. This was at a time when the SA was establishing the Senior Certificate of Education and when year 11 and 12 Mathematics courses were being reconstructed. He also spent a few years on the committee of the Mathematics Association of SA during the mid-80's.

In 1988 he took leave from the SA Education Department after 19 years of service and joined the Catholic sector. He was appointed Head of Mathematics at Cabra College in 1989 and held this position until 2003, when he decided to teach part-time and continue to enjoy the challenges of teaching Mathematics in the twilight of his career.

Peter Taylor
Friday 02 June 2006