In this talk, we explore strategies for engaging students with basic mathematical knowledge in research projects. This approach leverages open problems from respected academic journals. We will discuss methods for guiding students through problem–solving, publishing their results, and ultimately presenting their findings publicly. This technique can also benefit educators without prior research experience who wish to begin exploring research themselves.

We discuss how to stimulate students’ curiosity through visual tools, including classic experiments involving the Mo"bius strip and the Klein bottle. These experiments involve constructing the objects, observing their properties, and using hands-on activities to show how altering the objects by cutting disrupts their inherent properties.

At the end of the presentation, we will discuss problems our students have solved from journals as well as original problems related to our own research topics. Additionally, we will provide a list of current problems along with recommended books and articles to help students prepare for future projects. Join work with Drs. Chen, Mukerjee, and Swart.