Investigations

For the first day especially, we choose investigations that are easy to understand but deep in content, with multiple entry points. The following problems are a few that we have found to be good starter investigations.

Students dancing salsa rueda

Our website provides 11 learning guides. Which one(s) should you choose to give this inquiry-based approach a try…? Let me begin by telling you how I make choices about the materials. I like to go for what I love best and I usually mix materials from different books.

 

Cool thing: Bee dance

Think of the 5 coolest things you know in mathematics. Did you ever think about including them in your MLA course? You can, and perhaps should.
“Cool things” are short “mini presentations or activities” about a mathematical topic that is exciting to us and usually different from the math content that we are currently working on in class.

 

Often people ask me how to write inquiry activities so there must be some tricks that can be communicated. Together with Prof. Mairead Greene from Rockhurst University, I have been thinking about the questions we ask ourselves before, during and after writing tasks. Our intention is that these questions will help to inspire and guide others in creating good IBL activities in any mathematics course.

trapezoid growth pattern

In 2012 the Discovering the Art of Mathematics team started reaching out to the two-year colleges. At the NEMATYC conference in 2013 we learned that many faculty are interested in support around algebra related courses.