Logic Puzzles used for Problem Solving

A couple of years ago I received a Christmas gift from a student of mine.  It was one of those desk calendars where you remove a page a day.  This one in particular was titles Brain Games.  It has a bunch of different types of puzzles in it that are supposed to be done fairly quickly.  I tried to start my day doing a few of them in the morning before the day started and found a few of the puzzles quite interesting.  One morning , one of the many students in the my class came to ask me a question and saw that I was working on a sudoku puzzle and asked if they could help.  Since I was pretty busy anyway, I told them to finish it for me.  Well then it began, I didn't know it at the time but giving that student the puzzle lead to a fun part of the class that encourages problem solving and logical thinking.   When that student went back to finish the puzzle it lead to about 5 more students asking if they can do a sudoku as well.  I showed them the calendar and said I only had the one copy but I would find some more and hand them out later.  The next day when I got to school I went and photocopied the next puzzle which was a Binary puzzle.  I put them on the students desks and told them to try this one while I take attendance.  I was expecting students to finish within ten minutes and then we would move on with the day.  They stayed focused on the puzzle for about 45 minutes, coming up to ask me if the answer was correct and then going back to review and find the errors to try again.  I was amazed at how focused they were and how they were used some basic problem solving strategies to try to solve it.  On that day, nobody solved the puzzle and we had to move on to another commitment.

Cribbage in the Class

I am lucky enough to have a lot of freedom with the students that I teach.  I teach a group of gifted students all day long.  I am supposed to try to challenge the students in a variety of ways.  Students bring in laptops, tablets and Ipods and they try to stay connected to them all day long.  My partner and I decided that we want our students to learn about things that are not necessarily technology based.  We have started with gaming in the class.  Our original goal was to have the kids learn a game and make them communicate with each other.  We started by asking how many students knew how to play the game.  Out of the 53 students we teach, we had 2 students who even heard of it before.  In our mind , it is a good start because when teaching gifted students it is often hard to find things that they have not investigated.  I quickly put together an research investigation so that they could begin to learn terminology, rules and strategy.  The students started with a bit of a groan!  I also went out and started buying crib boards so that we had enough for the students.  I found a dollar store that sold them for $5 and bought enough for the class to play partner cribbage.  Decks of cards from the local casino also helped keep the cost down as well.  Once the students understood the basic rules and I had some boards, it was time to play.  Observing became quite interesting in the class once they started.  Here is what I noticed:

Problem solving instructions with cartoons

Every year in problem solving I begin with this sheet on how to problem solve and my general expectations.  We go over the sheet and have fun doing it.  I get the kids to interpret the cartoons and how they relate to problem solving.  They always enjoy them.  I found the comics on the internet quite a few years ago and tried to find them again but couldn't.  I wish I could give credit to the sources but at least the signature of the artists are on the comics. 

We then do a problem together so that they can see my expectations but in general I want to understand their thinking.  I ask them to let me know the strategy or strategies that they used, show the work (which sometimes means reorganizing it so that I understand it), and then give a proper answer.  Strategy, Work , Answer are my expectations and the kids don't find it too hard or onerous that they won't do it. 

We also add to the strategies list as we work through problems throughout the year but these strategies are a good starting point and allow me to demonstrate how they are used.

Middle School Math resource - Problem Solving

Working in a classroom with many different levels can be quite challenging.  Finding resources that motivate all students is something that we strive for.  One of the resources that I use is the Problem of the Week from the University of Waterloo.  These have been great for my class. Each week they send out problems at different grade levels.  I print out copies of all the levels and give the students the choice of which ones they want to try.  The levels are grade based with Grade 5/6,  7/8, 9/10, and 11/12.  I have some students who work at the 5/6 while others attempt the 11/12.  The great thing for my problem solving class is that I don't have the answers for the problems and so I am able to work through some of the problems with the class.  They get to see an authentic attempt at problem solving by me and see how I go about trying to figure it out with them.  They also give their input when they see my thinking is wrong or question when something doesn't make sense.  Waterloo gives you a week to figure it out before they put out their detailed answers.  These have been great for the class as they get excited to see the answers and see if their thinking was correct and they are able to work at a level that is comfortable for them. 

Here is the link:  http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/resources/potw.php 

If you have a great problem solving website , please share.