Fostering Mathematical Curiosity

Author(s): Eric J. Knuth

Source: The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 95, No. 2 (February 2002), pp. 126-130
Published by: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20870953
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Eric J. Knuth

Fostering

Mathematical

Curiosity

roblem solving is an important component of learn

ingmathematics, and that topic continues to
receive significant attention in recommendations
for schoolmathematics (NCTM 2000). Yet despite
Brown and Walter's (1990) contention that problem
posing is an integral part ofproblem splving, "prob
lem posing is almost always overlooked in discus
sions of the importance ofproblem solving in the
curriculum" (Silver,Kilpatrick, and Schlesinger

1995, p. 15).
Brown and Walter (1990) view problem posing as
related to problem solving in twoways. First, they
view the process of reconstructing a novel problem
by posing new problems?for example, Can I solve
a simpler problem? Do I know a related problem??
to be an essential component ofproblem solving.
Polya (1957) outlined a similar approach to prob

Mathematical
curiosity also
includes a
desire

to

explore
mathematical
ideas

lem solving. This relationship between problem

posing and problem solving ismost frequently
emphasized in schoolmathematics; in fact, a ver
sion ofPolya's problem-solving heuristics can be
found inmany secondary schoolmathematics text
books. Second, Brown and Walter (1990) suggest
that a person oftendoes not fullyunderstand or
appreciate the significance of a problem's solution
until he or she begins to generate and analyze a
new set of related problems.
Generating and analyzing problems posed after a
solution is determined are the aspects ofproblem
posing that play a significant part in developing
mathematical curiosity,the primary focus of this
article, and are experiences thatmost students
lack.Webster'sNew College Dictionary defines
curiosity as "a desire to learn or know"; thus,math
ematical curiositymight be defined as "a desire to
learn or know mathematics." Such a desire certain
ly is an attribute thatwe would likemathematics
students to possess. However, mathematical curios
ity includes more than simply a desire to learn or to
know mathematics. Mathematical curiosity also
includes a desire to explore mathematical ideas

through posing mathematically interesting prob

lems after one has "finished" a problem. The solu
tion or aspects of the problem can become spring

boards for furtherexploration. As Sowder (1993,

p. 238) notes, problem posing of this nature gives
students experience in "making up mathematics,

rather thanmerely absorbing it" and exposes them

to "an important and exciting part ofmathematical
thinking?the generation ofnew ideas."
Two problems follow,along with a number of

extensions. Discussing the underlyingmathematics

or the solutions tomany of the problems posed is
irrelevant to the purpose of this article. Rather, the
examples and discussion are meant to illustrate
what engaging students in problem posing might
mean and how teachers might begin to create class
room environments that encourage, develop, and
fostermathematical curiosity.

A PROBLEM-POSING

EXAMPLE

Brown and Walter's book, The Art ofProblem Pos

ing (1990), gives many examples, as well as an
extended discussion, ofproblem posing. The follow
ing example, although less detailed than the exam
ple included in their book, illustrates how teachers
might begin to engage their students in problem
posing activities. Teachers might start class by
using the following problem as a warm-up:
Given the sequence, 1,1, 2, 3, 5, 8,13, 21,...,
what questions and observations come tomind?
High school students might consider a number of
observations and questions. Interestingly,however,
in using this task, I have found that students often
provide observations rather than questions, per
haps because they lack experience in posing prob
lems. Their observations often range from noting
that the sequence appears to alternate between two
odd integers and one even integer?that is, odd,
odd, even, odd, odd, even,.. ?to statements about
the general recursive rule forpredicting the next
term to noting that the differencebetween succes
sive terms produces another Fibonacci-like

sequence (startingwith 0,1 rather than with 1,1).

Other observations, including some that teachers
themselves might suggest, include recognizing that
the square of any term differsby 1 from the product
Eric

Knuth,

knuth@education.wisc.edu,

teaches

at

the

University ofWisconsin inMadison, WI 53706. He is

interestedin developingmathematical thinkingand in
theuses of technologyin teachingmathematics.

126 MATHEMATICS
TEACHER

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of the preceding and subsequent terms (e.g., 52 = 3

8 + 1; 82 = 5 13 1) or recognizing that the prod
uct of two adjacent terms differsby 1 from the
product of the preceding and subsequent terms
=
=
(e.g., 3 5 2 8 1; 5 8 3 13 + 1).

After sharing some observations, teachers might

pose a new problem in an efforttomodel the problem
posing process. What ifthe beginning two terms are

not the same? For example, what ifthe sequence is

?How do the pre
now 10, 7,17, 24, 41, 65,106,...
vious observations relate, ifat all, to the new se
quence? In this situation,we still have an alternat
ing pattern of odd and even integers (that is, even,

odd, odd, even, odd, odd,...) and the difference

between successive terms again produces another
Fibonacci-like sequence, starting,however, with
-3,10. How does the square ofany term compare to
its preceding and subsequent terms? For example,
172 = 289 and 7 24 = 168; however, the difference
between these products is 121 rather than 1; thus,
the resulting equation is 172 = 7 24 + 121.We can
=
=
trya second example, 652 4225 and 41 106
a
with
difference
of
the
4346, again
121,
resulting
=
equation 652 41 106 121. How about the next
observation, that is,how does the product of two
adjacent terms compare to the product of the pre
ceding and subsequent terms?We can check two
examples:
17 = 119 and 10 24 = 240, with the resulting
=
equation 7 17 10 24 121; and
b) 41 65 = 2665 and 24 106 = 2554, with the
=
resulting equation 41 65 24 106 + 121.

a) 7

In all four examples, the difference is 121.Will this

result always occur?What is special about 121?
Does the difference of 121 relate to our choice of
startingwith 10 and 7?
Teachers could continue tomodel the process by
posing additional questions. The followingques
tions, forexample, might be worthy of further
exploration:What ifwe started the sequence with
two differentnumbers, forexample, 5, 8 or 3, 4?
What ifwe changed the general recursive rule,with
the appropriate changes ofn, froman = an_2+ an.\
to an = an_3+ an_2+ an_{!What ifwe started with a
sequence thatwas not a Fibonacci-like sequence?
At this point, teachers might also consider encour
aging students to pose new problems; in thisway,
not only do students have opportunities to pose
problems but teachers also have opportunities to
furtherdevelop students' problem-posing abilities.

AIM EXTENDED PROBLEM-POSING

EXAMPLE
The following is an example of a more elaborate
problem, one that can be extended in several direc
tions, not tomention over several class periods,
Vol. 95,No. 2

February 2002

depending on the questions posed and subsequently

pursued. In the followingdiscussion, two solution
approaches for the original problem are described;
one relies on technology,and one relies on analytic
techniques. After a solution is determined for the
original problem,we discuss opportunities forfur
ther exploration. The problems posed in this exam
ple were author-generated, and as a result, they
furnish a limited picture of students engaged in the
problem-posing process, although we can certainly
imagine furnishing opportunities for students to be
engaged at various points. The problems do, how
ever, give teachers an example ofhow theymight

model the problem-posing process.

The problem (Romagnano1997)

Given an equilateral triangle,A ABC, construct
a new triangle,A DEP, such that its vertices are

themidpointsofthesidesofA ABC (Seefig.1).

Showing that the area ofA DEP is one-fourth

the area ofA ABC is easy?this task is often the
only one required of students. However what
happens ifthe vertices of the inner triangle are
not placed at themidpoints? What ifwe place
each of the points D, E, and F one-third of the
way, three-fourthsof theway, or any other frac
tional part of theway fromone end of their line
segments to the other?How do the ratios of the
areas compare in these cases?

A dynamic

Fig.
equilateral
equilateral

1
triangle within an
triangle

A technology-based solution
Using The Geometer's Sketchpad, we can con
structA DEP so that it is a dynamic triangle, that
is, ifpoint D ismoved along AB, points E and F
move accordingly.The teacher can ask how we
know thatA DEF remains an equilateral triangle
as D ismoved. As pointD ismoved, we can calcu
late the ratio ofAD toAB and the ratio of the area
ofA DEF to that ofA ABC. For the cases shown
infigure 2,AD/AB = 0.67 and area A DBF/area

127

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Teachers

might pose a
new problem

in an effort
tomodel the

problem

posing
process

A ABC = 0.33; and in figure 3,AD/AB = 0.90 and

area A DBF/area A ABC = 0.73. Does a general
relationship exist between the ratio of the sides and
the ratio of the areas? Using the Tabulate function
ofThe Geometer's Sketchpad, we can record in a

tabletheratioofthesides(AD/AB)
and theratioof

Does

general

relationship

exist between

theratio of
the sides and
theratio of
the areas?

the areas (area AZ)?F/area A ABC) as pointD

moves. The table in figure 4 shows the correspond
ing ratios for ten differentplacements ofpointD
along AB. When students examine the tablemore
closely, theymight conjecture that the relationship
appears to be quadratic. To test the conjecture,we
can use the Plot Table Data function ofThe Geome
ter's Sketchpad to plot the table data and see that

the relationship does indeed appear to be quadratic

(see fig. 5). We could also make a continuous graph
of the data by dragging point D and using the cal
culated ratios, shown infigures 2 and 3, the Plot
Measurement function,and the Trace Point func
tion. The scatterplot appears to be a parabola. We
use a graphing calculator to determine a curve of

best fit for the data. The ratio of the areas as a

function of the ratio of the lengths can be described
by the followingquadratic function:y 3x2 3x + 1,
where x is the ratio of the lengths. Can we demon
strate analytically that the relationship is quadrat
ic and that the equation above is indeed the correct
function?

AD/AB 0.04 0.12 0.22 0.33 0.42 0.50 0.63 0.74 0.82 0.93
Area(A DEF)/Area.(AABC)
0.88|0.68|0.49|0.34|0.270.25

0.30 0.42 0.56 0.80

Fig. 4
Moving points D, E, and F various fractional parts
of the way along their respective sides

H?I?I?h

Figure 4 data, when

?I?I?h

Fig. 5
plotted, appear

to be quadratic.

An analytic solution

Moving

Fig. 3
points D, E, and F nine-tenths of the way
along their respective sides

In this solution, illustrated infigure 6, we let the

sides ofA ABC be one unit long.The teachermight
ask students whether the choice of side lengthmat
ters. Points D, E, and F are placed such thatAD =
EC-BF
x; and therefore the ratiosAD/AB
=
=
=
=
=
x and AE FC DB
EC/AC BF/BC
l-x. The
teacher can ask how the area ofA DEF compares
to the area ofA ABC. The height,H, ofA ABC is
V3/2;hence the area ofA ABC is V3/4.The area of
A DEF is hard to find directly; however,we can
find the areas of the three congruent triangles
AAED, A CFE, and A BDF. At this point, the
teachermay ask how we know that the triangles
are congruent. For example, the base ofAAED has
length 1 -x and height h. Since AAVD is similar
toAAWB, we know thatAD/AB =x/l = h/H; thus,
h =Hx = (V3/2)x.Therefore, the area ofAAED is

(l/2)((V3/2)x)(lx).To findthearea ofA DEF, we

then subtract three of these areas from the area of

A ABC; thus,thearea ofA DEF = (V3/4)

(3V3/4)
TEACHER
128 MATHEMATICS

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x(l x) = (V3/4X3*2 3x + 1). Finally, the ratio of

the areas, A DEF/AABC, as a function of the ratio
of the lengths,AD/AB, is Sx2 3x + 1, the same
relationship thatwe previously found.

1-x
4E

1
x
G

A dynamic

Analytically

Fig. 6
the ratio of the areas
determining
of equilateral
triangles

Continuingtheexploration
We could pursue several possible directions in fur
ther exploring the original problem. For example,
what ifthe initial triangle,A ABC, is not an equi
lateral triangle? Does the same relationship hold?
Ifnot,what is the new relationship? Or do several
relationships exist depending on the triangle? Is
the new relationship related to the original rela
tionship?As a second example, what ifthe initial
we
figure is a differentregular polygon? Instead,
can consider the square ABCD and the inner
square EFGH, as shown infigure 7, formedby con
necting the corresponding points on each of its
sides. The teacher might ask how we know that
EFGH is a square and will remain a square as its
vertices are moved. For brevity's sake, the level of
detail given in the previous example is not repeated
here; only the analytic solution is described. How
ever, readers can envision students using technolo
gy to engage in an exploration similar to the one

previously outlined.We can let the sides ofABCD

be one unit long and points E, F, G, and H be placed
such thatAE = FB = GC = DH = x and therefore the

AE/AD= FB/AB= GCIBC=DH/DC = x and

ratios

= BG = HC= 1-x. How does the area of

ED=AF
EFGH compare to the area ofABCD? The area of
ABCD is 1, and the area ofEFGH can be found
indirectlyby calculating the areas of the congruent
triangles?A AEF, ADHE, ACGH, and ABFG?
and subtracting those areas from the area ofABCD.
Thus, the area ofEFGHIs
1-4((1/2)(1-*)*)
Vol. 95,No. 2

February 2002

= 2^-2x

+ l.

Fig. 7
square within a square

as a
Finally, the ratio of the areas, EFGH/ABCD,
function of the ratio of the lengths,AE/AD, is
2x2 2x + 1.
At this point, students might conjecture that for
a pentagon "inscribed"within a regular pentagon,
the ratio of the areas as a function of the ratio of
the sides might be lx2 lx + 1; however, that con
jecture is not valid. The preceding function does
describe the relationship fora regular hexagon.
The relationship for the case of a regular pentagon
is difficultto determine analytically, but it can be
approximated by using a solution approach similar

to the one described in the "Technology-Based

Solution" section, the resulting function being
1.3x2 1.3jc+ 1. In the case of a regular hexagon,
the function can be determined analytically; the
solution approach uses 30?-60?-90? triangle rela
tionships. Continuing the exploration, students
might use The Geometer's Sketchpad to describe
the ratio of the areas as a function of the ratio of
the sides for several other regular polygons. Can we
describe the coefficientsof the resulting quadratic
equations as a function of the type ofpolygon? This
last exploration is leftto the reader or to the read
er's students.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this article, I have attempted to illustrate a par
ticular aspect of problem posing, an aspect that
engenders the development ofmathematical curios
ity.Many of students' schoolmathematics experi
ences are solution-driven; that is, teachers or text

books present specificallyposed problems, and

students attempt to determine particular solutions.
Further, the problem-solving process often stops
when the student reaches a solution. Students are
rarely asked to formulate problems or to view a

solution to a problem as a starting point in problem

solving.As I have tried to outline in this article,

129

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Students

are

rarely asked
to view a
solution

to a

problem

as a

starting

point in
problem

solving

to
Learning
pose mathe

matically
worthwhile
problems
requires
teachers to

guide

students9
explorations

however,much is to be gained bymaking the solu

tion or an aspect of the problem a starting point for
furthermathematical exploration?exploration that
lies at the heart ofmathematical practice.
Sometimes, thewondering and speculating asso
ciated with such explorationmay lead to important
generalizations (Silver,Kilpatrick, and Schlesinger
1995) or to a deeper understanding of the original
solution (Brown andWalter 1990). However, deter
mining solutions to problems that students pose
might be beyond themathematical ability of the
students or their teacher; yet even then, I believe
that posing and exploring such problems have
value. As Mason, Burton, and Stacey (1982, p. 142)
suggest, "there is nothingwrong with being unable
tomake progress on a question, and there is a
tremendous value in tussling with it, rephrasing it,
distilling it,mulling it over, and modifying it in var
ious ways."

Although developing students' mathematical

curiosity is a skill that seems to come naturally to
mathematicians and tomany mathematics teach
ers, it requires giving students opportunities to be
engaged inmore open-ended forms ofmathematical
thinking.Learning to pose problems that are math
ematically worthwhile requires that teachers play
an active role in guiding students' explorations. The

MATH HOMEWORK HELPSITE

Tutorial SolutionsTo Problems
InLeadingTextbooks-^

following resources are excellent for learningmore

about fosteringmathematical curiosity through
problem posing: Brown andWalter (1990,1993);
Mason, Burton, and Stacey (1982); and Silver,
Kilpatrick, and Schlesinger (1995).
Although there are no "right"problems to pose,
students' early problem-posing experiences may
result in their posing problems that are notmathe
matically productive ones to pursue. In such situa
tions, teachers may need to initiate discussions
regarding the reasons that some of the problems

that students pose may be "better" than others and

tomodel desired problem-posing behavior, for
example, generating possible problems to pursue.

As students progress in their problem-posing abili

ties, teachers can begin to play a smaller role in
directing the nature of problems that students pose
and subsequently pursue.
Young children have a natural curiosity about
theworld inwhich they live.Unfortunately, this
curiosity,particularly with respect tomathematics,
often seems to disappear by the time that they
reach secondary school. Recent reformrecommen

dations, however, recognize the need to foster such

positive mathematical dispositions: "Teachers play
an important role in the development of students'
problem-solving dispositions by creating and main

taining classroom environments, fromprekinder

garten on, inwhich students are encouraged to
explore, take risks, share failures and successes,
and question one another" (NCTM 2000, p. 53). By
participating in such environments, students can
acquire, or perhaps rediscover,mathematical
curiosity.

REFERENCES
Brown, Stephen I., and Marion I.Walter. The Art of
Problem Posing. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, 1990.
-.
Problem Posing: Reflectionsand Applications.
Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993.
Mason, John,with Leone Burton and Kaye Stacey.
ThinkingMathematically. Essex, U.K.: Addison
Wesley Longman, 1982.
National Council ofTeachers ofMathematics (NCTM).
Principles and Standards forSchool Mathematics.
Reston,Va.:NCTM, 2000.
Polya, George.How toSolve It. 2nd ed. Princeton,
N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1957.
Romagnano, Lew. "Teachingwith Technology."
Colorado Mathematics Teacher 30 (summer 1997):
28-30.

hotmath.com
Your

students

need

never

stay

stuck

again

Silver,Edward A., JeremyKilpatrick, and Beth

Mathematics. New
Schlesinger.Thinking through
York.: The College Board, 1995.
Sowder, Larry. "The Looking-Back Step inProblem
Solving." InProblem Posing: Reflections and Appli
cations, edited by Stephen I. Brown and Marion I.
Walter, pp. 235-39. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, 1993.
?

TEACHER
130 MATHEMATICS

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