Description
Which math teacher has NOT been asked this question at some time? This inquiry project was born out of my principal's desire to give her students some insight into the everyday applications of math, as well as some possible historical connections. Groups of students are given mostly-blank inquiry question grids and play a 'game' in order to generate inquiry questions related to math, e.g., "How are Arabic numbers different from other numbers?" or "When is it appropriate to use Roman numerals", as well as the title question. After generating at least 20 good inquiry questions, each student chooses 5 of them and creates an illustrated poster of the answers, which they display at the end. We co-taught the project, since library time was required for the research, and her students came up with some excellent posters. Moreover, most of them thought it was a really worthwhile project, some said they learned a lot!
Highlights
Description
Which math teacher has NOT been asked this question at some time? This inquiry project was born out of my principal's desire to give her students some insight into the everyday applications of math, as well as some possible historical connections. Groups of students are given mostly-blank inquiry question grids and play a 'game' in order to generate inquiry questions related to math, e.g., "How are Arabic numbers different from other numbers?" or "When is it appropriate to use Roman numerals", as well as the title question. After generating at least 20 good inquiry questions, each student chooses 5 of them and creates an illustrated poster of the answers, which they display at the end. We co-taught the project, since library time was required for the research, and her students came up with some excellent posters. Moreover, most of them thought it was a really worthwhile project, some said they learned a lot!

