Closed but provocative questions: curves enclosing unit area

Abstract

This article describes a task leading to work on curve sketching, simultaneous equations and integration to find the area enclosed between two curves. An initial closed question is used to confront students with a provocative answer, which they then explore in a much more open-ended way.

Keywords:

• closed questions
• integration
• inverse problems
• open questions
• provocative questions
• working backwards