Student Inquiry and the Rascal Triangle

TL;DR

This paper explores how inquiry-based learning enables liberal arts students, despite math anxiety, to make original discoveries in mathematics, demonstrated through an investigation of the Rascal Triangle.

Contribution

It presents a case study of inquiry-based exploration that reveals students' ability to discover mathematical patterns independently.

Findings

Students made original discoveries about the Rascal Triangle.

Inquiry-based approach fosters mathematical exploration among MLA students.

Students overcome math anxiety through exploratory learning.

Abstract

Those of us who teach Mathematics for Liberal Arts (MLA) courses often underestimate the mathematical abilities of the students enrolled in our courses. Despite the fact that many of these students suffer from math anxiety and will admit to hating mathematics, when we give them space to explore mathematics and bring their existing knowledge to the problem, they can make some amazing mathematical discoveries. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is perfect structure to provide these type of opportunities. In this paper, we will examine one inquiry-based investigation in which MLA students were given the space to look for patterns which resulted in some original discoveries.