What are the right questions

I've read a couple of math blogs (here's one:  http://blog.mrmeyer.com/, look for "The Wembly Problem") on generating student interest through pictures.  Hand students a picture and ask them what mathematical questions come to mind?  What questions do they think about when they see a certain picture?  Then, of course, how do they find the answer to their question(s).  If you are teaching a specific mathematical concept this year the pictures you use might have to be more than pictures -- you want to generate a specific question or set of questions. So the pictures have to be designed to generate the "right" question.

This is math through application though and is really wonderful from that aspect.

And here's interesting support for math and story-telling:

Science News Online just published a fascinating article: Good Stories, Good Math. The article is subtitled: “Preschoolers who can tell good stories develop good mathematical skills by the first grade.” Writer Julie Rehmeyer reports on a new study which reveals that there’s apparently a very strong connection between mathematical ability and the ability to tell stories from different perspectives.

That is from the blog Wild About Math, http://wildaboutmath.com/2007/11/10/good-storytelling-ability-related-to-good-mathematical-skills/ .  

Lisa