Let's All Teach a Course Based on #MTBoS

My Honors Problem Solving Seminar is an elective that is new for me and my school this year, and although I definitely brought many topics to the course, I must admit that my plans often get thrown out the window thanks to the MTBoS. One blog post or one tweet that I read before school could completely change my plan for class that day. There are so many things that I wanted to teach in my regular math classes, but never had the time. Now I can share with interested students all of the cool topics that are not part of the traditional curriculum. So I say, everyone, let's all teach a flexible #MTBoS course to our kids! Now is the time to get your elective out there to be approved by your department chairs or administration. My students all double up with this course and another math class. The prerequisite is Pre-Calculus or any honors math course.

Below is a list of many of the topics I covered first semester.

Things that I brought to the class (i.e., used before #MTBoS) but have mostly blogged about so are now out there:

Problem Sets These will last two semesters.
Figurate Numbers
Tower of Hanoi (I still need to blog about this.)
Art Benjamin's Mathemagic
The Monty Hall Problem
The Radioactive Cube Problem
The Art of Problem Solving
Die Hard 3 The Jug Problem
Florida Mu Alpha Theta Test Bank

Amazing things that I've built entire classes around using #MTBoS

Rubik's Cube (This was a long unit)
Sam Shah's Fistbump problem
Mr. Orr's Pumpkin Time Bomb Activity
Alex Overwijk's great little card problem
This tweet, below, which was a response to how to make a Sierpinski Triangle, which one of my students made (see above) as her final project.

Videos I've shown or problems I've given from #MTBoS

The Bridge Problem
The Fold and Cut Theorem
The Math in Pixar Movies
Cannibals and Missionaries Problem
Einstein's Riddle
Anything from Jo Morgan's Resourceaholic
Any puzzles from Emma Bell
Corbett Maths 5-a-day
The 3 Hats Problem or 4 Men in Hats Problem
Another Prisoner Hat Problem
Math major talks about fear
These Challenges

I know there's more that I've forgotten. I'm looking forward to Part II next semester!

Got time to do something outside the box? Ted-Ed is the answer!

I have posted about the Einstein problem before, but this time it just got real!

Dan Van der Vieren (Mr. VDV) is the teacher who recently Skyped with my class twice for an hour and a half each time just so we could learn how to solve the Rubik's Cube (by the way, 63% of us in the class can do it without looking at any video or notes--so far!) just created an awesome Ted-Ed video called "Can you solve 'Einstein's Riddle'?"

It is awesome. I have given this problem before, but this was a great little video that was very fun to watch. The characters, script, and editing make it all the more fun. I played it this morning for my students and paused at the exact moment so they could begin working. This is NOT a puzzle for the meek...but it certainly is a fun one. I don't know if it's true, but the internet boasts that only 2% of people can get the answer to this riddle.

Here's the version I have given:

But Dan's twist is that the fish is stolen...who took it?

Here's some of my students' work:

There's more, but I don't want to show you the answer. It will be fully explained, after the pause when students do work on the problem. It's a great activity, but I do recommend a full class period. If a student wants to give up, do it with them on the board...very fun!!

Great job, Dan!

I blogged about the bridge riddle here--we love Alex Gendler and the narrator! It's another great problem.

And my students enjoyed this variation on the Prisoners Hat Problem.

I hope these keep coming. They are fun and counterintuitive in many cases. They open my students' eyes to problems that I was exposed to at some point, but that they have never seen. I know your students will love them as much as mine did.