Fun and Games Description
In Mathletes Fun and Games, the central theme for all of our activities is simple: Math is Fun. Students will participate in a wide range of activities that are visually engaging and mathematically motivated. Examples include:
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Students will engage in many activities that involve strategy games. These challenges include finding the winning algorithm, and analyzing the end-game to make the winning move.
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Students will tackle a range of puzzles, including algebra puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, spatial reasoning challenges, and folding puzzles.
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Students will practice math skills required for school in game formats.
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Students will be exposed to visual puzzles that are, in reality, problems from different branches of mathematics that they often don't see in school, including graph theory, game theory, and combinatorics.
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The world of mathematics is much broader than what is typically found in school. Math is fun and engaging. Come and see for yourself !
Register for in person classes here
Register for online classes here
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Sample Problems​
Sample problems can be solved as printouts or digitally.
Grades 1st-3rd: SAMPLE PROBLEMS and ANSWER FORM.
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Grades 4th-6th: SAMPLE PROBLEMS and ANSWER FORM.
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Interactive Logic Puzzles​
Problem solving strategies for these logic puzzles will be taught in the Fun and Games class.
Here are three example puzzles: Nurikabe, Spiral Galaxies, and Masyu.
To make the puzzles smaller or larger, click on the magnifying glass in the upper left hand corner.
Nurikabe: Blacken some empty cells to form a single connected group, the "ocean", with no 2x2 group of cells entirely shaded black. Two black cells are connected if they share an edge. The remaining cells form white areas called "islands". If two white cells share an edge, they are part of the same island. Each island should contain exactly one numbered cell that describes its area (in cells). Two islands may only touch diagonally.
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Easy 5x5:
Easy 7x7:
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Spiral Galaxies: Divide the grid along the indicated lines into connected regions -"galaxies"- with rotational symmetry. Each cell must belong to one galaxy, and each galaxy must have exactly one circle at its center of rotational symmetry.
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You can color in boxes by going to settings and clicking on the colored box. ​
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Normal 5x5:
Normal 7x7:
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Masyu: Draw a single closed loop passing through all circles in the grid. The loop must make a turn at all black circles and go straight for at least two cells in both directions before turning again. The loop must go straight through all white circles and turn immediately before and/or after in the next cell.
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