Reports observations of the use of mental aerobics with 48 adults whose median age was 70. Provides examples of the group puzzles and logic, math, and word problems used to enhance cognitive functioning and creative thinking. (SK)

Teaching mathematics with games and puzzles goes back in history. Presents an example with the set theory game called Subset Takeaway in which two players can play. Creates a geometric representation of Subset Takeaway starting with a triangle and going to a three-dimensional simplex. Illustrates the winning strategy in the game and features a…

Presents a common knowledge puzzle in which it becomes possible to reason about other people's responses to the puzzle. (ASK)

Presents four activities in which students cut out and assemble pieces to create Celtic designs. (ASK)

Presents an activity exploring the process by which satellite imagery is produced. (MKR)

Presents an activity on translating scientists' names that gives students an opportunity to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Sequences science-related translations as a series of puzzles. (JRH)

A study uses a thought-provoking, pencil-and-paper activity to aid students in writing organic reaction mechanisms. Organic and functional groups that constitute the formulas of organic and inorganic reactants, ionic intermediates, and products are presented as building blocks, which must be placed correctly in a given puzzle so that they bind…

In this article, the author describes a 200-year-old ladder problem that can carry learners to high levels of mathematical thinking and activity. This problem requires learners to go from a word problem to an equation to a graph and from there to a solution. As this problem of specifics is turned into a problem using variables, technology,…

Carefully constructed puzzles, in this case crosswords, bring success and enjoyment to the practice of basic skills. (Editor/RK)

Describes a laboratory activity in which polystyrene spheres in two preassembled motifs must be arranged to form a tetrahedral structure. (MLH)

Describes the Periodicity Puzzle designed to cause students to use some of the strategies employed by scientists in the solving of the puzzle. Directions for constructing the puzzle are included. (PEB)

Ways in which games can be used as tools in observing, diagnosing, and providing educational therapy for learning dysfunctions are listed and described in a series of four related papers: (a) "Educational Therapy for Learning Dysfunctions"; (2) "Educational Therapy and Puzzles"; (3) "Educational Therapy and Reading Fluency"; and (4) "Spelling…

When preschool children were given a choice of activities, they spent significantly more time working with puzzles/brissle blocks than they did working at a computer. Sex and age differences were not statistically significant. Wide individual differences in the "holding power" of both the computer and puzzles/brissle blocks were found.…

This analysis of solutions to the Tower of Hanoi Problem underscores the importance of subject-by-subject analysis of "What is learned" in understanding human behavior in problem-solving situations, and provides a technique for describing subjects' task performance programs in detail. (Author/BJG)