Reflections on some favorite investigations

Rubik's Cube Investigations

Solving the Rubik’s cube was one of the main themes in my Mathematical Explorations class this semester. My students believed for most of the semester that they would never ever be able to solve the cube. Watching them overcome this belief was powerful for all of us. One of the main goals of my course is for students to change their beliefs about their mathematical abilities and to become more persistent, confident and creative in problem solving. And the Rubik's cube does just that.
 

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Salsa Rueda

Salsa Rueda and Mathematics

Instead of describing a particular teaching technique, this (shorter) blog will expose you to many ideas that come up for me around teaching a specific topic, salsa rueda, in a math for liberal arts class. I will tell you why I love to include dancing in my math classes and show you videos and student work from my math and dance class. Maybe you also want to give it a try some day?
 
 

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Compass Rose

Tackling Rascals’ Triangle - How Inquiry Challenges What We Know and How We Know It

We present the following case study as a way of illustrating the power of inquiry-based learning to transform how we think about what we know and how we know. It challenges us to reconsider the nature of teaching and learning in mathematics. Julian Fleron describes how he and his students explore triangle patterns.
What we know changes several times in the story of Rascals’ triangle. And each time the matter of what we know is inextricably intertwined with how we know it.

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