❮ Back to: All Differentiation Techniques

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”

Make A *Better* Calendar!

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!?

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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?

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.

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?"

« Previous Page