tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post1076484284159798544..comments2024-03-11T02:46:16.799-04:00Comments on ABQ Math Blog: SUDOKUDavid Petrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16551690042242217798noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-64936408790018045342014-05-05T11:37:03.753-04:002014-05-05T11:37:03.753-04:00I think Sudoku is a great puzzle game to use in th...I think Sudoku is a great puzzle game to use in the classroom. Its a fun, logical puzzle which is perfect for after tests or for students who finish their homework early.<br /><br />Challenging your brain to learn news things is a great method to keep our minds healthy and active. <br /><br />Below I have posted one of my fav logic puzzles, remember to change the inappropriate beverages to something else like root beer, and to change the smokes to maybe types of candy.<br /><br />A Brain Teaser<br /><br />Albert Einstein once posed a brain teaser that he predicted only 2% of the worlds population would be able to solve.<br /><br />FACTS:<br />1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colours. <br />2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. <br />3. These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigarette and keep a certain pet. <br />4. No owners have the same pet, brand of cigaratte, or drink.<br /><br />CLUES:<br />1. The Brit lives in a red house <br />2. The Swede keeps a dog <br />3. The Dane drinks tea <br />4. The green house is on the left of the white house. <br />5. The green house owner drinks coffee. <br />6. The person who smokes Pall Mall keeps birds. <br />7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill. <br />8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk <br />9. The Norwegian lives in the first house. <br />10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats <br />11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill <br />12. The owner who smokes Camel drinks beer <br />13. The German smokes Marlborough. <br />14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house <br />15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbour who drinks water.<br /><br />The question is, who keeps the fish? <br /><br />It's a fun one, give it a try!!<br /><br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08587617248554716995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-84008730636979804962012-06-01T22:42:21.060-04:002012-06-01T22:42:21.060-04:00I have used the kenken puzzels before as extra bon...I have used the kenken puzzels before as extra bonus/games at the end of class or a a fun break I like them a little better (for high school students) becasue they require you to use the basic math skills along with the number patterns. All of these activities are a great way to keep your mind engaged. The other one that I was playing a lot was Train your brain (it was a game for the DS). You could break the class up into groups and have a weekly quiz of basic math skills to keep the students on their toes. Don't forget that there has been a lot of studies recently that has shown that people who do puzzel games are less likely to develope alzheimer's disease.Melissa Kraussehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05806267264793251088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-42596281260174540122012-05-19T15:06:51.671-04:002012-05-19T15:06:51.671-04:00I've actually used Sudoku as an icebreaker for...I've actually used Sudoku as an icebreaker for some of the students I tutor. We have a wooden Sudoku board with a frame with slots. It comes with white squares of paper that fit under the frame and the numbers appear in the slots they need to (and the ones you need to figure out remain blank spaces). Then there are wooden number tiles that you use to fill in the spaces. I really like this setup because you don't waste any paper (other than reusing the ones with the puzzles printed on them) and you can move around your numbers without worrying about erasing or crossing out your numbers. I had a grade 3 student doing these willingly and a grade 1 student was flying through the "easy" levels by the end of last summer. I would definitely have Sudoku (and similar thinking puzzles) available for students to do if they complete work early or would like an extra challenge.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03350530570309853805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-13471314986486485692012-05-18T01:13:58.445-04:002012-05-18T01:13:58.445-04:00Don't forget to tag your postsDon't forget to tag your postsDavid Petrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16551690042242217798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-12745924796360012342012-05-18T00:59:22.047-04:002012-05-18T00:59:22.047-04:00Taking a common place item or thing and talking ab...Taking a common place item or thing and talking about it in detail or explaining how it can be used in a class is a great way to use a blog post.David Petrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16551690042242217798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-24516809145167274572012-05-14T10:17:59.696-04:002012-05-14T10:17:59.696-04:00KenKen, Sudoku, Kakuro (http://www.atksolutions.co...KenKen, Sudoku, Kakuro (http://www.atksolutions.com/games/kakuro.html - I've already mentioned this game in a discussion at some point) are all very similar games but with different problem solving attributes. <br /><br />Christine, thanks for your history from Sudoku, and Liam for your explanation of KenKen. I think any one of these examples here are great little games for students to learn strategies. I'm addicted to Sudoku myself - I have it on my phone and whenever I have a spare moment or two, I try to play a game or two, and get my "average play time" lower and lower! I've also tried harder levels as I get more confident with my skills. When I started playing 4 or 5 years ago, I was awful, and over time I have developed skills and techniques on how to solve it quicker. I like your idea Christine of setting it out as something for students to do when they arrive in class as a daily challenge (not to mention to get them in the mindset of math). Perhaps you could stop them before everyone is done, as some may be slower than others, but over time you hopefully will find that the students will get faster. I can also see it being something that students would feel inclined to help each other out with techniques. <br /><br />When I go to my cottage in the summer I tend to buy a book for Sudoku, and my grandmother was intrigued with the game. She asked me to teach her, so I gave her a long lesson and sat there and played with her. She had a hard time grasping the concept, and over a matter of 3 visits to the cottage, I had to re-explain the rules and how it works. Now, my grandmother is a crossword girl, she does it every day and is amazing at it. But she just couldn't grasp the mathematics of the same type of puzzle. Although this is not a success story, I know if she had kept at it, she would have been able to remember, but in her older age she just couldn't do it.<br /><br />I think with a teacher's enthusiasm, and understanding of the puzzle, students would have fun. Maybe it would be neat to spend one week on sudoku, one week on KenKen, and one week on Kakuro, and whatever other possible math game there is. Students will enjoy the change in games, and the change in approach to the games as they change the techniques for answering them. <br /><br />Thanks for sharing everyone!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13472596321342565506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7816441863716070776.post-12157563711016152282012-05-13T21:46:18.964-04:002012-05-13T21:46:18.964-04:00Another great game of this type that is being tout...Another great game of this type that is being touted to have similar learning attributes is KenKen. ( www.kenken.com ) In the same design as Soduku, KenKen is a game of numbers in several boxes. The operation is given as well as the answer in each box and the numbers must be the same across the lines horizontally, diagonally and vertically. Equally as challenging. As the box gets bigger the harder the game becomes! A great way to practice mathematical basics, speed and memory skills. It was developed in 2004 by a Japanese mathematics instructor Tetsuya Miyamoto. It is gaining popularity and can now be found in many newspapers daily.Liam Bauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18039232370798863689noreply@blogger.com