This same situation could also be presented as a series of tasks leading students along certain lines of thought. The investigations in Categories A and B of OTRNet's Subscription Service are presented in the form of a series of tasks. These introduce some situation and then prompt students to examine various aspects of the situation, generalising wherever possible. They tend to become less prescriptive towards the end often leaving open avenues for further exploration by better students. Our investigations are presented in this format so as to provide a full resource to teachers, their online format allows for modification to make them more or less open ended as the user sees fit.
Investigations require students to use mathematical processes to understand the problem.
Having developed these thinking skills through various investigations students become more able to apply and transfer this knowledge to new, non-routine situations as they arise. The selection of what type is appropriate for a given class depends on what the aim of the work is, what time constraints are applied, whether it is being used for an assessment item, what experience the students have and a number of other factors. An important part of the selection process should be completing the investigation yourself before deciding on its use. In doing this you can accurately assess its suitability and begin to build up an understanding of what is involved. If you intend to use investigations as part of the learning experiences of students then they will need to be written into your programme of work.