Journal of the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association
Volume 50 Issue 1, December 2012
30 -33
Secondary Algebra: A Quadratic Case Study
Ed Barbeau
Jennifer Hyndman (professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Northern British Columbia) recently had a very bright fourth-year student ask what doing research would mean for her. Even though we spend our time teaching students how to solve problems, which is one stage of doing research, I’ve often do no teaching about how to create new problems, nor do we let students understand what research is. In this article, Ed Barbeau develops the idea that creativity in mathematics can be fostered at the undergraduate level through presentation of material that allows students formulate questions.
