The Multiple Triangle: Experiences in Discovery

Abstract

Imagine an arm balance with a pan at each end. On one pan we have the enemy of the young—boredom; on the other pan, the guardian angel of the young—discovery. We want the balance to be tipped in favor of the guardian angel, but as every teacher knows, this is not an automatic result. It takes a lot of planning and hard work. To counter boredom the teacher must create a learning environment for the student that is exciting, useful for maintaining basic skills, and fun to explore. In order to excite and involve students we must present a well-balanced program that con tains some novel, challenging, and surprise-filled problems. In the process of solving the problems, the students learn the basic skills through their experiences in gathering data.