[TLDR: Skip to the bottom for the puzzle pages.] I have been putting together these Weekly Math Puzzle Pages for months now and my project is finally wrapping up. I'd like to share them with the math teacher community, or any curious student, who stumbles upon my blog. The idea of doing weekly puzzle pages came about from two thoughts: (1) Homework is inequitable when it is graded, long, and unfocused. In lieu of nightly homework problems I am instead handing out a weekly puzzle page, with a "Problem of the Week," which can substitute as homework. The POW is a challenging problem that directly relates to the material covered in class that week. Nothing on the puzzle page will be graded, but I will hold weekly meetings (both in class and online) for students to discuss the POW. (2) I love puzzles. I love riddles. I love corny jokes. I love fun math facts. I have been trying for YEARS to figure out a way to expose my students to ALL of the amazing videos, fun facts, brain teasers, and jokes I've collected but have had a miserable time finding time to incorporate this collection of THINGS into the classroom. In addition to the POW, the puzzle page also includes logic puzzles, jokes, brain teasers, fun facts, interesting math videos, and notable mathematicians. (3) I want students to see that mathematicians aren't just some old Greek, white, dead guys. So these puzzle pages have a "Google Me" section where I highlight some famous mathematicians and scientists, where 8/16 of them are female, 8/16 are not white, and 5/16 are still alive (RIP Maryam Mirzakhani). The original project was created for my Math 1 students, but you can easily adapt this to any math class by simply changing the POW each week (I plan on doing another set with Math 3 later). I also made these a bit seasonal, as I was working on them in the Fall and got into the holiday spirit with the weeks at the end. So, without further ado, here they are. Please use them as you see fit. I hope they bring you and your students as much joy as I had in putting them together. Thank you to everyone I follow on Twitter through #MTBoS for always sharing excellence, and for making these puzzle pages possible.
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AuthorTracy Conte is a high school math teacher in Raleigh, NC. Archives
November 2019
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