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Differentiation TechniqueFind The Controversy

Read The Overview: Find The Controversy in Any Topic

By leveraging a point of contention, we can get students interested in just about any topic. Yes, even boring old spelling has controversy we can exploit!

Specific Examples of “Find The Controversy”

Encourage Curiosity With Calculators

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.

Help my students remember these confusing terms!

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.

Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote

Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote

Let's do more than ask, "What did this person mean?"

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, Part III

Here are even more amazing paradoxes to baffle your students: Buridan's Bridge, the Bootstrap Paradox, and the Barber Paradox.

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?

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.

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.

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?!

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