The relationship between preschoolers' puzzlemaking strategies and part-whole perception was investigated in the present study. Forty-eight two year olds and 48 four year olds were randomly selected from eight licensed childcare centers. Puzzlemaking strategies (image, form, color, and trial and error) were measured by performance in the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how multimodal assessment tools enabled Grade 2 students to show knowledge and understanding of wolves. The research design was a case study across three years employing descriptive statistics to portray student knowledge and understanding associated with the use of each tool. The findings indicate that…

A sudoku puzzle was designed that incorporated lists of chemistry terms like polyatomic ions, organic functional groups or strong nucleophiles that students need to learn. It was found that students enjoyed solving such puzzles and also such puzzles made the boring tasks of memorizing basic chemical terms an exciting one.

This article presents an investigation carried out with a group of able mathematics students who were studying at a level 1 year in advance of their peers. The purpose was to investigate the extension of usual three peg Towers of Hanoi to four pegs and attempt to find a rule that could be used to predict the minimum number of moves required to…

This is a package of classroom games for the elementary grades. They cover the basic subject areas and are adaptable to various ages and numbers of players. Included are two pages of puzzles ready to be duplicated and given to students. (SJL)

A lot has been made of the topical puzzle Su Doku, with various claims that it can support development of mathematical abilities. The latest, in March this year, came from the Training and Development Agency when a giant puzzle was used to attract graduates into a career of maths teaching. A giant Su Doku puzzle toured busy city centres with the…

Sudoku puzzle was designed to teach about amino acids and functional groups to the students of undergraduate organic chemistry students. The puzzles focus on helping the student learn the name, 3-letter code and 1-letter code of common amino acids and functional groups.

A hidden-words puzzle involves the names of 22 mathematicians. (SD)

Contains "The Greatest Americanest Novel," a conglomerate of the first and last lines of a number of great American novels; provides a scorecard on which readers can attempt to identify the quotations. (DD)

The Chinese tangram puzzle was known as far back as 1813. It has remained popular ever since. It consists of seven simple polygonal pieces of card which can be assembled in the form of a square. The reader is presented with some popular shape such as the man or cat above, and then asked to construct this using the tangram pieces. There are whole…

"First-generation" college students, whose parents have not attended college, are an increasing presence at elite colleges and universities. Admitting these students, however, is not enough to ensure that they can take full advantage of the opportunities available to them in college and succeed there. Indeed, research indicates that…

We observe that recruitment efforts aimed at alleviating the shortage of skilled workforce in computer engineering must be augmented with strategies for retaining and motivating the students after they have enrolled in our educational programmes. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, we have taken a first step in this direction by…

One way to teach Pythagoras' Theorem is through use of puzzles. Marshall (2004:1) points out that, "in creating their individual solutions to puzzles, students may reveal mathematical thinking on which approaches to the standard curriculum could be based." This article describes a puzzle-like spatial structuring activity related to…

This booklet contains word games and puzzles, designed for use as introductory exercises at school food service training workshops, nutrition education classes, community health meetings, or for use by students. Time needed to play the games ranges from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the nutrition knowledge and experience of the participants.…

Step-by-step details are given for a classroom activity in which fifth and sixth graders construct original crossword puzzles. (SJL)