Dialogue-based Activities and Manipulatives to Engage Liberal Arts Majors in Mathematics

Abstract

This article presents four inquiry-based learning activities developed for a liberal arts math course. The activities cover four topics: the Pythagorean theorem, interest theory, optimization, and the Monty Hall problem. Each activity consists of a dialogue, with a theme and characters related to the topic, and a manipulative, that allow students to physically interact with the mathematics they are doing. The overall goal is to create a new way for liberal arts students to engage in mathematics, while simultaneously cultivating an appreciation of the subject.

Keywords:

• Inquiry-based learning
• liberal arts mathematics
• number systems
• Pythagorean theorem
• financial mathematics
• interest theory
• problem solving
• modeling
• optimization
• probability
• simulation
• Monty Hall problem

Notes

¹ Video descriptions of the first three activities can be found at [4].

² The dialogues can be found in the online appendices.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James C. Price

James C. Price is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. He earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University, where he received numerous teaching awards. Beyond liberal arts mathematics, his research interests include algebraic geometry, history of mathematics, and actuarial science. He is passionate about changing the world, through the way people think about mathematics and education.