Developing a classroom of inquiry

My MDM 4U course has been an adventure this year. My goal, as mentioned in previous posts, has been to spiral the course or at the very least deliver the content through activities. It's now been two months and I thought I would share some highlights thus far.

1. Students are more engaged and willing to participate.

• They absolutely love playing games - even if its as simple as "pick a number from 1 - 6 and once your number is rolled, sit down". They are starting to ask questions that help lead the lesson as opposed to being told what they need to know.

2. Students regularly contribute and offer answers, even if they are unsure if they are correct.

• Most activities require students to contribute their findings or results of an activity. I found that by having each begin the course by contributing in this way, I have created a space where students are more willing to contribute.
• Its okay to say "I don't know". It's even okay to offer an answer and when asked why you chose that number to say "I don't know" but I thought...

3. Students offer solutions without definitely knowing the correct formula.

• I have students who have prior knowledge and are stuck on having a formula. It's been great getting them away from the need for a formula and focusing more on explaining why something is happening. Students in my class are getting better at communicating their understanding.
• Students are making connections between activities and again are not so focused on just memorizing formulas.

So until the next post, here is to creating more activities to discover statistics.