Benefits of Number Puzzles
Solving number puzzles has immense benefits to all students because they sharpen the intellect and offer a challenge to the brain.
Doing regular mental exercises that involve processing numbers can create actual physical changes in brain tissue. The brain benefits from regular exercise in much the same way as muscles do. In fact, the brain not only benefits from this training - it thrives on it. These changes can result in lasting gains in the math skills of school children. Solving puzzles regularly helps to create students who are better thinkers. Ultimately, I want my students to develop skills that enable them to tackle all sorts of subjects.
So, why puzzles?
Solving puzzles brings numerous benefits to students
There is no magic potion to help a student become better at solving puzzles except by practicing. The more puzzles a student solves, the easier they become and the less time one spends on each one.
Doing regular mental exercises that involve processing numbers can create actual physical changes in brain tissue. The brain benefits from regular exercise in much the same way as muscles do. In fact, the brain not only benefits from this training - it thrives on it. These changes can result in lasting gains in the math skills of school children. Solving puzzles regularly helps to create students who are better thinkers. Ultimately, I want my students to develop skills that enable them to tackle all sorts of subjects.
So, why puzzles?
Solving puzzles brings numerous benefits to students
- Puzzles give permission not to know the answer or method before starting.
- Students build stamina and confidence for problem solving by playing with puzzles.
- They are genuine problems to solve -- true to real life -- not exercises in following a rule or template.
- They allow high cognitive demand with flexible prerequisite math knowledge.
- They give plentiful skill practice while allowing the mind to engage: drill and thrill, not drill and kill.
- They exercise important habits of mind: experimenting, juggling multiple constraints…
- They engage the intellect. They are fun.
- The ability to solve puzzles is also highly valued in the "real world"!
There is no magic potion to help a student become better at solving puzzles except by practicing. The more puzzles a student solves, the easier they become and the less time one spends on each one.
"Amusement is one of the fields of applied Mathematics"
- W. F. White
- W. F. White
"Play is our brains favourite way of learning"
- Diane Ackerman
- Diane Ackerman
"It is a wholesome plan, in thinking about logic, to stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible, since these serve much the same purpose as is served by experiments in physical science"
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell