Inquiry-Based Learning through "Vroom, Vroom!!" Activity

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This week in our Mathematics Education class we did a great activity entitled "Vroom, Vroom!!". This activity included wind up cars and meter sticks. The goal of the activity was to develop a model that is accurate enough that when given a distance to travel, you are able to calculate exactly how far you need to pull the car back. The class was split up into groups and we were told that all the groups were going to be competing against each other at the end of the activity.

Our group started by collecting some data. We pulled the car back different distances and recorded how far the car traveled. We decided that we would pull the car back 5cm, 6cm, 7cm, 8cm, 9cm and 10cm. We choose these values because we found that when we pulled the car back 4cm or lower, it did not travel very far at all. These values were a good way to start to collect some data on how the car traveled after each pull. Once we got all this information recorded, we were able to make a scatter plot graph and find a line of best fit. Then with our knowledge of linear relations, we were able to create an equation that would model the distance traveled for our car.


Now came the competition part of the activity, which was the most exciting part as everyone got very competitive. We were told that we wanted the car to travel 210cm. So we went back to the equation that we created previously and substituted 210 in for the y-value. After some simple calculations, we concluded that we would need to pull the car back approximately 11.6cm for it to travel 210cm. In the end, our car did not travel the farthest, but it was a lot of fun competing against our classmates.

 I could absolutely see myself using this activity in my future math classroom. It would be a great way to get students to work together and collaborate while investigating linear relations.

This activity would be an excellent activity to use in the classroom as inquiry learning. Inquiry-Based Learning is described as "an approach to teaching and learning in which the classroom environment is characterized by the student being the active participant while the teacher’s role is decentralized" (What is Inquiry-Based Learning?). Which means that students are using investigation to discover their own learning, rather than being lectured by the teacher. Inquiry-Based Learning has been shown to help students gain a deeper understanding as they are figuring out the mathematics for themselves (What is Inquiry-Based Learning?). I think it's very important to allow students to learn through self discovery and investigation, as not all students benefit from being lectured. That being said, I also think that some students do benefit from the structure of a lecture-based lesson. Overall, it is important to give my students a variety of instructional techniques. In addition, to knowing how they learn and what works best for them.When this is done, we can continue to strive to be the best teachers we can be.