  Those of us who teach Mathematics for Liberal Arts (MLA) courses often
underestimate the mathematical abilities of the students enrolled in our
courses. Despite the fact that many of these students suffer from math anxiety
and will admit to hating mathematics, when we give them space to explore
mathematics and bring their existing knowledge to the problem, they can make
some amazing mathematical discoveries. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is perfect
structure to provide these type of opportunities. In this paper, we will
examine one inquiry-based investigation in which MLA students were given the
space to look for patterns which resulted in some original discoveries.
