Math lovers, I need your help. (Math-likers welcome too. Math-haters who are into torturing themselves are also quite welcome, if you know any.) If you love puzzles, that might be enough to suck you in. I'm hoping...
I am pulling together a collection of problems meant to entice students who aren't all that into math. (So, relatively easy puzzles.) I think we focus too much on algebra and not enough on the visual skills that come along with geometry. So each problem in this collection includes visualizing. Most of them involve geometry.
I'm calling them PPODs - Puzzle Problem Of the Day. I plan to post them in my classrooms and in the math department of the community college I work at.
I have found quite a few good problems in Geometry Snacks, by Ed Southall and Vincent Pantaloni. (I bought the e-version of the book yesterday.) I just now discovered Ed's blog (solvemymaths.com), and found more goodies. My other favorite source is the beautiful by-hand drawings done by Catriona Shearer, @cshearer41. I couldn't find who to credit for about a quarter of the problems I've collected.
I'm aiming for 60 problems, one for (almost) each day (M-Th) of the 16-week semester. I have about 50 already. What I need is help determining the difficulty level of each one. I need volunteers to help me figure that out. I'm using a scale of 1 to 5 myself, and anything I'd call a 4 or 5, I'm throwing out. (I've gotten stuck on a few problems. Those are not in the collection, of course.)
If you're interested, I'll send you my collection. And then you post your ratings here.
Just let me know in the comments if you'd like to check these out. (Or email me at mathanthologyeditor@gmail.com.) Also, I'm interested in your ratings and thoughts even if you just end up doing a few of the puzzles.
I have found quite a few good problems in Geometry Snacks, by Ed Southall and Vincent Pantaloni. (I bought the e-version of the book yesterday.) I just now discovered Ed's blog (solvemymaths.com), and found more goodies. My other favorite source is the beautiful by-hand drawings done by Catriona Shearer, @cshearer41. I couldn't find who to credit for about a quarter of the problems I've collected.
I'm aiming for 60 problems, one for (almost) each day (M-Th) of the 16-week semester. I have about 50 already. What I need is help determining the difficulty level of each one. I need volunteers to help me figure that out. I'm using a scale of 1 to 5 myself, and anything I'd call a 4 or 5, I'm throwing out. (I've gotten stuck on a few problems. Those are not in the collection, of course.)
If you're interested, I'll send you my collection. And then you post your ratings here.
Just let me know in the comments if you'd like to check these out. (Or email me at mathanthologyeditor@gmail.com.) Also, I'm interested in your ratings and thoughts even if you just end up doing a few of the puzzles.
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