I’ll be presenting a session on Geometric Puzzles at the Asilomar meeting of the California Math Council. (Saturday, Dec 2, Sanderling, 1:30pm The printed program says I’m in the middle school, but that is not correct. The app has the location right.). I will include material that I believe is relevant to teachers from kindergarten to tenth grade. Hoping to see some of you there!
Given that this is CMC-Asilomar’s 60th anniversary, I thought it would be a good time to reminisce: this is nearly the same topic I presented in 1984. After rejections by several publishers, my first book (Pentomino Activities) had recently come out. It later got combined with two other pentomino books, and that combination in one big binder remained in print for about 30 years. It may still be available from mheducation.com, item # 0884883744. I highly recommend it. A new version, with fewer puzzles, can be purchased from Didax. It comes with an e-book version, so you can project any page from the book, and you can manipulate virtual pentominoes on the screen.
My pentomino obsession was followed by a series of puzzle books on polyominoes and supertangrams, all of which are now free on my Web site. After that, I moved on to other curriculum development projects, but I maintained an interest in a tool-rich pedagogy and a puzzler’s ethic, both of which originated in this early involvement with pentominoes. The more observant among you may have noticed that my Web site logo is based on a pentomino P:
–Henri P
PS: I link to many of my geometric puzzle creations here
Henri's Math Education Blog 