History of a research

Abstract

The didactic activity described originated from a classic combinatorial and probabilistic problem that two fifth-year students of a scientific high secondary school, who are also two of the authors of this article, happened to deal with.
This paper describes the first attempts to solve the problem, as well as the use of computer simulation to try to get some information about the solution. Furthermore, it presents also two different approaches to the search for patterns that would help to solve the problem and the search for mathematical knowledge that would help to give meaning to the results provided by the simulation. The attempt to explain the other classmates the long and complex process of addressing the problem, which appears to be a real research activity, is also explained.