Zome – geometric construction

Zome – geometric construction

Zome Zome is a manipulative that is excellent for the upper grades – however it takes time to put away and is fragile. Nevertheless, there is no manipulative so versatile on the market, so it should be considered. I am now equally in favour (especially for...
Taxi Cab Squares (geometry)

Taxi Cab Squares (geometry)

 Taxi Cab Squares  (inspired by the Inscribed square problem of Otto Toeplitz, 1911) Give your students practice with Cartesian coordinates as they explore a new variant of a famous, unsolved problem of Otto Toeplitz (1911). This problem has a very wide spectrum of...
Complete the Quadrilateral

Complete the Quadrilateral

Complete the Quadrilateral (Don Steward, 2013) Try finding the largest and smallest rhombus, rectangle, trapezoids etc. so their vertices  include a special point and the other vertices lie on the lattice points of a grid. The first half of the video is quite easy,...
Circus Tent Puzzle

Circus Tent Puzzle

Circus Tent Puzzle The best tents are the ones that have the smallest perimeter. Both of these tents have a perimeter of 7. That's the best you can do for $17. Each triangle is worth $3. Each square is worth $4. Given a tent price find the smallest perimeter. Let's...
Symmetry Search

Symmetry Search

Symmetry Search (MathPickle, 2011) Give your students practice identifying mirror and rotational symmetry.  I’m 95% happy with this puzzle… the mild negative issues are: 1) Some students see the 2D shapes as 3D shapes and this confuses their perception of...