This interactive whiteboard resource is another where its purpose is to allow teachers to easily set a thinking skills activity for their class.  The strength of this puzzle is that it can be easily carried out on computer or with easily made pieces.  The challenge was originally set byJohn Harris and is one of the ones included in The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems by Martin Gardner.

The challenge is to start with a cube that has one face marked.  You start with the cube on the upper left square of a chess board.  The purpose is to tour the board, visiting each square once and only once, before finishing with the marked side up on the top right sqaure.  A move may be made left, right, up or down and involves rolling the cube.  The marked face may not appear face up on any move except for the start and end position.  Using the resource shows you the rules quite easily.  The skull and cross bones represent the marked side. 

The resource records the high score in each session so if you wish to allow the class to attempt this on computer you can see what their best attempt has been.  The solve button will show the solution but only if you enter the correct password in the text box below.  The password can be obtained by requesting it in the comments below.  It will not be sent immediately to prevent cheating and will periodically change so it is worth recording the solution when you have it. 

Challenges such as these encourage children to devise their own strategies and analyse the problem to reach a solution.  It is a tricky problem and students should be encouraged to not give up too soon to encourage their persistence at problem solving.  Many children fall into the trap of believing anything they can’t solve in a couple of minutes is impossible and they give up.  Setiing longer problems can help counter this mindset.  A hint that you may like to give is that the solution really only needs you to work out how to tour half the board as the second half can be done the same way but reflected. 

To make the puzzle physically use or print a normal chess board and find a cube whose faces are close to the size of squares on the board.  Or a dice may be used nominating which number counts as the marked side.

Go to Cube Tour interactive whiteboard resource.

I’d like to acknowledge the significant amout of time I saved while creating this resource by using the cube code at http://www.flashandmath.com/ as a basis for the cube used in this resource.

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This is the second in the series of Mission to Mars resources for use in a space themed set of lessons.  A more detailed description of how I use this resource and the thinking behind its creation can be found at the supporting site teacherledplus.

This is another IWB resource to allow you to easily build in a thinking skills aspect to your lessons.  This resource encourages children to display persistence and develop their thinking strategies as well as record progress.  The mission is detailed on the opening screen of the resource.  In essence the challenge is to visit each of the squares in the grid with the mars rover in 12 moves (the absolute minimum).  Restrictions are enforced in that the rover can only turn in multiples of 45 degrees. 

Tap a square that you want the mars rover to move to.  If it is a valid square it will move if not it won’t.  You can click on already visited squares.  Every square the mars rover explores by moving through will be illuminated.  If you illuminate all squares and return to the start using no more than 12 waypoints the challenge is completed with 100% efficiency.  This is possible but will usually require a lot of effort to achieve.  Doing it in 13 is not too difficult and their are a number of ways of doing that but 12 is a great challenge.  Ideas for making this more achievable  for all children are given on the supporting site mentioned above.

Restart will clear the current progress.  Briefing will show the mission constraints.

Get more ideas about this resource at teacherledplus.

Go to the the IWB resource.

If you need the solution please ask in the comments.  It will not be sent for a couple of days to avoid homework cheating.  If you use what is clearly a staff email address I will try to send it quicker but cannot guarantee this.

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My intentions for this IWB resource are explained in more detail on the supporting blog for this site teacherledplus.com.  It forms part of a series of themed resources to support topics on space.  It can, however, be used in isolation as a quick puzzle to challenge thinking skills.

The challenge is to connect the coloured chips to each other.  Blue to blue, red to red, green to green.  The rules state that no cable may cross another cable, nor may they cross another chip, and nor may they leave the pale green bounding box.  To use simply drag from any of the 1 chips (ie B1, R1 or G1,) to any of the 2 chips (ie B2, R2, or G2).  If the connections are made without breaking any of the rules then the resource will indicate a mission success.  If a rule is broken the resource will indicate what rule has been broken. 

This puzzle will at first look impossible to many children but once they attempt it a solution is usually found quite quickly so this resource works well as a starter exercise.  Its main goal is to show children that they shouldn’t dismiss a challenge as impossible too quickly.

There is a printable sheet to support this resource here which you can hand out to allow the class to try and work it out with pencil and paper.

More information on the thinking behind the creation of this resource and how it may be employed as well as links to information on other resources within this topic are to be found here.

Go to Mars Circuit IWB resource.

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This interactive whiteboard resource forms the first part of a themed series of resources that support the use of a Soma Cube in teaching.  If you know about the Soma Cube then this resource is useful for showing a class the basic pieces and some of the shapes that can be made from them. Choose either shapes that can be made from a set of Soma pieces or the individual peices themselves and scroll through them using the arrows at the bottom of the screen.

Depending on your screen resolution you may need to set your browser to full screen. On IE press F11.

If you would like to know more about using the Soma Cube for problem solving lessons or developing spatial reasoning please see the supporting article on the new site designed to support the resources here.  teacherledplus.com  A number of activities and suggestions are made here.  Alternatively the following book includes the original publication by Martin Gardner that brought the puzzle to the masses:The Colossal Book of Mathematics

View this Soma Overview interactive whiteboard resource.

There are two more resources designed to be used in a Soma themed series of lessons and these are:

Soma Bingo

Soma Isometric Drawing

Please feedback on these themed resources with any problems suggestions or ideas in the comments or follow this site on Twitter.

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The third interactive whiteboard resource in a series to aid using Soma Cubes in lessons.  This one is to facilitate adding a competitive element to their use.  Break the class into groups and allocate them to  one of four colours red, green, yellow or blue.  Set a goal.  This may be to complete a horizontal line, vertical line or any line.   When a group shows you that they have completed a shape they can capture that square by pressing the appropriate colour on the appropriate box.  That square is then captured for 2 minutes or permanently if you activate that option.  To take take a closer look at a shape click the small picture inside the box. Click the larger picture to close it.  There is far more detail on how to use this resource on the teacherledplus.com link below.

Go to Soma Bingo Interactive whiteboard Resource.

To learn more about using Soma Cubes in lessons for practising spatial awareness and problem solving skills see this the supporting site to teacherLED.com – teacherledplus.com

View Soma Cube Introduction IWB resource.

Soma Isometric Drawing

Depending on your screen resolution you may need to set your browser to full screen. On IE press F11.

Please feedback on these themed resources with any problems suggestions or ideas in the comments or follow this site on Twitter.

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This interactive whiteboard  resource can be used as part of the Soma Cube themed resources on this site or as a standalone resource for demonstrating how to draw using isometric dotted paper.  By clicking the appropriate button either a piece from the Soma Cube or one of the shapes it can make are shown along with a an isometric dotted grid.  Students and teachers can demonstrate how to draw the shape isometrically using these.  To draw click and hold on a dot and move to another.  Once you touch another dot the line will be straightened and you can progress to the next dot.  If you make a mistake click undo to step back through the lines.

Go to Soma Cube isometric drawing resource.

Find out more about using the Soma Cube in lessons on the supporting site’s article “Soma Cube“.

View Soma Cube Introduction IWB resource.

View Soma Bingo IWB resource.

Depending on your screen resolution you may need to set your browser to full screen. On IE press F11.

Please feedback on these themed resources with any problems suggestions or ideas in the comments or follow this site on Twitter.

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An interactive whiteboard resource that gives you a complete lesson activity for teaching about approaching problems systematically.  The problem presented here is an updated version of one first presented by H.E. Dudeney in the early 20th Century. 

The IWB resource presents a reaction test.  The test is successfully passed if 4 circles are lit up and they form the shape of a square.  The resource will join up the circles if the square is formed. The resource is really only intended to engage the students in the problem.  It is used best if the students come up and try and achieve a succesful square by pressing the red button.  When the first student achieves one tell the class that the next square must not be of the same type as the one previously done.  Or if a student misses an intended circle ask if it is possible to still form a square.

Here are 2 examples of two possible scoring formations:

You can see that both layouts form a square.

Once the students understand the ways to find a scoring layout set them the challenge of finding how many different ways there are to achieve a scoring layout using 4 circle targets.  This works best if in the first instance you let the students come up with their own methods.  In the pdf for this resource there is a blank target to be printed for the students to use.  Most students will try colour coding and find that it is hard to work clearly.  The next step is to introduce them to working systematically using a table.  The pdf includes a tabular layout to allow the students to easily work through all of the different combinations and come up with the final number.  You can print this or the children can create their own.

Once the students believe they have worked systematically and are confident they have got the final total you can press solve on the resource to cycle through all of the solutions with a count to help you keep track.

I’ve found this lesson very effective in allowing the students to see how much easier a task is if laid out in an appropriate manner and worked through systematically.  Download the pdf for further notes.  Please feedback on any problems or ways that you have used the resource in the comments section below.

Go to interactive whiteboard resource

Get supporting print out.

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