What is the first question that comes to mind?

By


By asking What is the first question that comes to mind? all students have the opportunity to contribute 

You will likely get questions like this 

  • How many pieces of paper?
  • How long will it last ?
  • How much plastic is covering it?
  • How did it get there?
  • Who put it there?
  • How much does it weigh?

If you have a particular one in mind throw that in too


Collectively choose a problem to solve 
Think about the knowledge needed to solve the problem - what do you need to give the students ? what can they find out for themselves?
what do we know? 
what do we need to find out  to answer our question/solve our problem?
  • shape
  • volume formula
  • multiplication / division

or maybe you have some interesting local photos of your own or from your students
here is one from a holiday in Turkey


What is the first question that comes to mind?




turkish house.jpg 

Which question will we solve?
What do we know
What do we need to know to solve the problem? 
What else could we ask?

and and example from the site with 101 questions


What is the first question that comes to mind?
http://www.101qs.com/2835-parking-lot 
  
Which question will we solve?
What do we know
What do we need to know to solve the problem? 
What else could we ask?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seven Sites to build rich mathematical discussions

By
We are often looking for ideas to have students work purposefully for short or longer bursts. This post has a collection of  seven sites that you and your students could work on independently, in pairs, small groups or as whole class  Would you rather ?  Would you rather began as a way for John Stevens to start his classes. It has evolved into a large collection of graded problems that ask students to choose an option and justify their choice using maths.  Visual Patterns.org A collection of over 400 patterns to begin rich discussions which can lead to a generalisation for the pattern. Collated by Fawn Nguyen , On the sidebar of her blog you will find links to others sites. Open Middle A huge collection of  problems sorted by topic and grade level. Open middle problems start and finish at the same point but offer multiple pathways through. Put together by    Nanette Johns on and Robert Kaplinsky Estimation 180 This site is curated by Andrew Stadel, a teacher and Mathematics Coach in C
Read more

Three quarters of 2016 ...

By
Image
... Gone. It seems hard to believe that three quarters of 2016 is behind us. As I look back over the year there are so many things I planned to do and didn't quite get to. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1003733/images/n-STRESS-TIPS-628x314.jpg Planning for the last quarter includes completing some new learning. Here I have highlighted some of the more popular online courses that are relevant to us as maths & stats teachers in NZ. For Students As senior students head into exams its worth having them think about how they learn best. The most popular MOOC on Coursera is  Learning How to learn.   The course started this week  (September 12) registrations are still open.   https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn 5 options for teachers  1. FutureLearn: Data to Insight https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/data-to-insight This course is presented by Chris Wild from The University of Auckland. It is full of really powerful ideas for teachers both in t
Read more

teachers learning from teachers

By
Image
Today  Ormiston Senior College opened their doors to mathematics teachers to share how they are personalising learning utilising technology. Teachers came from Albany in the north to Onewhero is the south. I was definitely the kid with a new toy as I learned to drive a sphero. With a bit of trial and error however the sphero was off. I think the best day of school just got better. Many thanks to Ormiston Senior College, Subash and his department for hosting us - A great morning - lots of learning - and lots of ideas shared. Next stop Auckland Maths Association   AGM & Quiz Night Get a team (of 4) together  or join a team on the night Wednesday February 28th  Mt Eden Bowling Club, Epsom Ave, Epsom. Happy Hour 6-7pm AGM followed by quiz night, 
Read more