Activities for Students: Print-Shop Paper Cutting: Ratios in Algebra
Careylyn Hill · Mathematics Teacher Learning and Teaching PK-12 · 2002
A major goal of high school mathematics is to equip students with knowledge and tools that enable them to formulate, approach, and solve problems beyond those that they have studied. High school students should have significant opportunities to develop a broad repertoire of problem-solving (or heuristic ) strategies. They should have opportunities to formulate and refine problems because problems that occur in real settings do not often arrive neatly packaged. Students need experience in identifying problems and articulating them clearly enough to determine when they have arrived at solutions. The curriculum should include problems for which students know the goal to be achieved but for which they need to specify—or perhaps gather from other sources—the kinds of information needed to achieve it.