Day: February 12, 2018

Puzzling

by dougpete, posted in Computational Thinking, Education, learning, Mathematics, Teaching

Who doesn’t like a good puzzle?

I often think that part of the reason why I did so well in Mathematics and went on to study it was that I had great teachers.  One of the commonapproaches that seemed to run through all of them was not to assign “problems” but to present each activity as a puzzled to be solved.  When they solved them in front of the class, you could see the joy they had in the solution.

I can’t say that the same approach would work for everyone but I know that it did for me.  I can actually remember the names of just about every teacher or professor that had that sort of impact on me.  The most recent was Ross Honsberger.  In fact, I was so inspired that I remember dipping into the very shallow coffers of a university student to buy books from his series Mathematical Gems.  I see now that they’re available to view online if you’re so inclined.

Now, those puzzles or gems might be a little intense for K12 schools but SolveMe Puzzles certainly aren’t.

SolveMe

I played around with all three categories of puzzle and will confess that “Who Am I?” really caught my fancy.

Each of these broad categories takes you into a section where you actually play the puzzles.  But, it’s more than that.  Check out the Bingo area for each and then, impressively, you can make your own puzzles.  Or students could create their own to challenge their classmates.

You can sign in to keep track of your progress or play anonymously.

puzzle

However you use it, just don’t call them “problems”.  They’re mathematical puzzles at their finest.

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OTR Links 02/12/2018

by dougpete, posted in Links

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.