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Mathematical Research in the Classroom via Combinatorial Games

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Teaching and Learning Discrete Mathematics Worldwide: Curriculum and Research

Part of the book series: ICME-13 Monographs ((ICME13Mo))

Abstract

In this paper we present a summary of the results of our research concerning 2-player combinatorial games and its applications used to teach the know-hows of the mathematical activity via certain a-didactical research situations, called SiRCs, that transpose to the classroom the activity of an actual researcher in mathematics. We use a specific kind of combinatorial game called Nim-type games and here we only present in some detail a game called the chocolate game. Our main conclusion is that SiRCs based on Nim-type combinatorial games are effective tools to introduce a genuine (but not necessarily original) mathematical research activity to students from high school and above.

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Correspondence to Ximena Colipan .

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Colipan, X. (2018). Mathematical Research in the Classroom via Combinatorial Games. In: Hart, E., Sandefur, J. (eds) Teaching and Learning Discrete Mathematics Worldwide: Curriculum and Research. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70308-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70308-4_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70307-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70308-4

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