a thought on teaching

From today's Philadelphia Inquirer: Masters of "spring" theory, about how physics is now being taught in some high schools by a "modeling" approach, in which students basically try to figure out the principles of physics for themselves, by teacher-facilitated experimentation. This requires the teachers to go through some intensive training themselves in order to teach this way.

To what extent is it possible to teach mathematics this way? I've heard of the Moore method, which seems like an analogue of this, but from what I've read that sounds like it's been most successful at the post-secondary levels. I also don't know if this particular page is the best explanation of the Moore method, because I've never experienced it myself.

(Also, apparently "string theory" is well-enough known that a mainstream news paper feels like they can make puns on it in their headlines. I'm not sure what to make of this.)