Convex Tangram Polygons

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, or visitor to my website, you probably know of my long-standing interest in geometric puzzles. Among those, tangrams are probably the most well-known and widely available. Thus I included them in Geometry Labs (free download) where they are the subject of Section 2, and Lab 10.6. In this… Continue reading Convex Tangram Polygons

Minimum Polyomino Cover

When I taught elementary school (1971-1981 or so) I had more time for “enrichment”, which for me meant excursions off the beaten curricular path, especially into the world of recreational math. As a result, my first publications were largely about geometric puzzles. (Those books were assembled a few years later. More info about my books.) Anyway, one… Continue reading Minimum Polyomino Cover

Geometric Puzzles at Asilomar

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… Continue reading Geometric Puzzles at Asilomar

Puzzles for the Classroom

In my last post, I shared some generalities about puzzle creation. Today, I will zero in on the specifics of creating puzzles for the mathematics classroom. I will do this by way of analyzing some examples. Multiple PathsA characteristic of all classrooms is that they are constituted of students whose backgrounds and talents vary widely. … Continue reading Puzzles for the Classroom

Errata

According to Merriam-Webster, the word errata means "errors" in Latin, but it is used in English to mean corrigenda which in Latin means "corrections". So there you have it: errors can be corrected — student errors, teacher errors, and (ahem) curriculum developer errors.My books, great as they are, do contain errors. Some are small errors… Continue reading Errata

Geoboard Problems for Teachers

At the San Francisco Math Teachers' Circle yesterday (March 4, 2017), we explored four "teacher-level" geoboard problems (All can be adapted for classroom use.) Here is a brief report, including some spoilers, I'm afraid. Pick's Formula It turns out that the area of a geoboard polygon can be figured out by counting the lattice points… Continue reading Geoboard Problems for Teachers