For the incoming semester, my school gave me an amazing new classroom, where all walls are covered by white boards. Even windows are covered by movable boards. It is great to have that much space and I will use lateral boards to keep information such as classroom life (homeworks, examinations,...), and keep important theorems, definitions or figures all lecture long.
I am not sure what to do with the board in the students'back. Since their chairs have wheels, I could use it normally but I don't feel it will be convenient.
My idea is to leave this board to the students and let them use it to present a math related project. The two main constraints are:
- Only this board can be used to present the project. In particular, it should be self-contained, and the students should assume they would not be present to answer to the audience's question. The aim is that any passer-by could enter into the classroom and learn something from the project (maybe work on it - see below).
- The project will evolve during the semester, the students improving or modifying it during small classbreak, or during their lunch break,... The idea is that the project does not take too much of the students time. Also, I planned to take photos of their work regularly.
My question: Do you have examples of this kind of project? Or resources on how to organize it?
Specific constraints related to this precise class (but I am interested in answers in another setting, addressing the two main constraints above):
- They are high school students. They will start the study precalculus, but already know quite a lot about functions and trigonometry. A project involving multivariable calculus would also be interesting (for another class).
- It is a special high school for science students.
My idea so far would be a timeline about Asian history of mathematics (Asian because I am a European teacher in Asia, and I don't know anything about this part of the history of mathematics).