Find The Controversy
Every topic has some juicy controversy. Leverage it! Look for ambiguity, disagreements, dilemmas, and discrepancies in any topic.
Help my students remember these confusing terms!
If you want students to memorize, you can’t aim for memorize. You have to aim higher – and then memorization comes along for free.
How *Not* To Ask Questions About A Novel
These “discussion questions” highlight so many of the problems we’ve been looking at.
Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote
Let’s do more than ask, “What did this person mean?”
Healthy Donuts!? Framing a Math Project with a Big Idea
Instead of jumping straight to calculations, what if we framed this math concept with a big idea?
Universal Themes and… Punctuation!?
Here’s how can we move a punctuation lesson beyond mere memorization and towards actually interesting thinking.
Which is longer: a Ray or a Line?
Let’s move beyond memorizing definitions and get kids grappling with the fascinating concept of infinity!
What could we do with this Wax Museum event?
How one might revamp a “Wax Museum” project into something that focuses more on thinking than product.
The Surprises Within a Triangle’s Angles
Discovering what is interesting and unexpected about a triangle’s angles. What twists have I unintentionally spoiled for my students over the years?
Make A *Better* Calendar!
The calendar is a source of fantastic factoring problems with many social studies add-ons. Why 12 months? Why 30 (or 31 or 28) days? Why are weeks 7 days long? Why don’t they fit into the months (or the year!)? Why did we do this to ourselves!?
Running A Curiosity Project
Merlin Mann stated that employees’ motivation increases when they get to “build a robot” once in a while. That is, do something creative beyond regular work. Can we do this at school? Offices have “casual Fridays,” can we have “curiosity Fridays?”
Depth and Complexity: Ethics… In Math!?
The Ethics prompt of depth and complexity fits so easily into the humanities… but what about ethics in math?!
Paradox: Ship of Theseus
Here’s a fun thought experiment your students are sure to get a kick out of: when something is slowly replaced over time, is it still the same thing in the end?
A Clock Math Project?
A reader wrote in, asking how to differentiate for a task like reading analog clocks. What to do with a student who has mastered this skill? What’s a good math clock project?
Encourage Curiosity With Calculators
It’s easy to fall in love with chasing the newest technology to use in the classroom. But sometimes, the perfect tool is a plain old calculator. We’ll be using this tool to develop curiosity about math.
Three Videos With Mind-Blowing Optical Illusions
Paradoxes and illusions are a great area of study to blow students’ minds. I recently discovered an amazing artist, Kokichi Sugihara, who creates and films optical illusions using just paper and balls.
Paradox: Does Majority Rule?
A quick, but challenging discussion topic for any age: “Is it always fair to make decisions based on a majority vote?”
Tickling Curiosity
Let’s look at a way to encourage and scaffold curiosity in our classes using a “Book of Unanswered Questions.” Begin by sharing intriguing objects or images and asking your own questions. Give kids a chance to find answers to their questions. Then encourage students to bring in their own intriguing conversation starters. Finally, move students towards curriculum based questions.
3 More Paradoxes, Part III
Here are even more amazing paradoxes to baffle your students: Buridan’s Bridge, the Bootstrap Paradox, and the Barber Paradox.
Conflict and Quadrilaterals
Rather than merely asking “what patterns are there in these quadrilaterals” we’ll set up an exploration of conflict and quadrilaterals.
Multiple Perspectives: Right And Wrong At The Same Time?
It’s essential to teach our students to think flexibly and consider multiple points of view. Flexible thinking leads to product innovation, diplomacy between nations, and advances in science. School, however, often encourages students to settle into a “one right answer” mindset.
5 Visual Paradoxes To Blow Your Students’ Minds
We’ve seen some awesome logic paradoxes, now let’s examine a few visual paradoxes that would make great mental warm-ups for your class! The penrose triangle, penrose stairs, impossible cube, the blivet, and the Möbius strip! Plus, download a powerpoint to share with your students.
3 More Paradoxes
Last month’s paradox post was very popular, so here’s another. These are a blast to share with kids. Use them to help students think through a complex problem, finding all possibilities. Work on the ability to articulate thinking. And, naturally, have them find and create their own.
3 Paradoxes
The paradox content imperative is a blast to expose students to. Here are three famous paradoxes to delight and confound your deep thinkers (and one bonus from Yogi Berra).
Constructing Meaningful Math Projects
Here are four key attributes I look for when developing math projects: juicy data, interesting conflict, an expert’s lens, and a final product.
Exploring Morality Behind Actions
No one can deny that our gifted students have great power. They may be intellectual powerhouses, grasping concepts years ahead of peers. They may be emotionally sensitive, becoming aware of issues such as mortality at an early age. They may be leaders of people, showing leadership qualities from the very beginning. How do we teach them to use this power?
Ask Them Which Is Better
Moving from analysis to evaluation sure makes things more fun. Why? Check out these examples. Which would you rather answer?
No Street Names In Japan?
Do your learners use the tool 👓 multiple perspectives to analyze stories, problems, and historical events? Here’s a TED Talk about real-life multiple perspectives that will make your students (and you!) reconsider basic assumptions.