Welcome to Discovering the Art of Mathematics (DAoM)

Mathematical Explorations students at WSU investigating Maypole patterns

The Discovering the Art of Mathematics project provides a wealth of resources to support college faculty in teaching Mathematics for Liberal Arts, including a library of 11 inquiry- based learning books, professional development opportunities, and extensive teacher resources.

What IBL can look like...

Inquiry-Based Classroom

What does inquiry-based learning mean to us? How do we teach? Let's walk into Volker Ecke's classroom and listen to his thoughts.

Creating an IBL Community

IBL classroom: Students discussing their board work.

Wouldn't it be amazing to develop a collection of IBL hubs or centers across the US where mathematics faculty could immerse themselves in a broad variety of IBL classroom experiences?

 

In Students' Own Words

Perhaps the best way to understand the depth and powerful impact of our project is to hear what the students have to say about their experiences.

Hello, my name is Nicholas Taliceo and I am senior at Westfield State University. I’m a Mathematics major and I love it. I’ve had some amazing experiences – I’ve attended and presented at numerous conferences including the 2015 JMM conference in San Antonio, TX, and had the opportunity to experience undergraduate research, just to name a few. Interestingly, only a few years back, I would have never thought that I would be doing what I’m doing now…

Student Quotes - The quotations at right are typical of written responses received as part of student journals, essays and reflections. Many more student quotes can be found in our quote library »

  • Instead of falling asleep listening to lectures I was able to solve problems and make conjectures.

  • I went in to this class saying, “I’m not good at math,” and I left this class saying, “I can do math.”

  • Math Explorations taught me what mathematics really is. It is an art form.

Student Interviews – Conducted as part of end of semester activities, videos help you see and feel the transformative impact of the experience on students.

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Acknowledgments

NSF LogoThis project is based upon work currently supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF1225915 and previously supported by NSF0836943 and a gift from Mr. Harry Lucas.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.