Comments on: KenKen Construction – Building Puzzles in the Classroom http://www.mrlsmath.com/math-activity/kenken-construction-building-puzzles-in-the-classroom/ Tools & Techniques for Math Teachers and Students Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:06:47 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 hourly 1 By: Bill Lombard http://www.mrlsmath.com/math-activity/kenken-construction-building-puzzles-in-the-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-1285 Bill Lombard Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:56:52 +0000 http://www.mrlsmath.com/?p=826#comment-1285 Hi Jimmy, For KenKen with 6th graders, a 4x4 puzzle using Easy should work fine. My suggestion would be to stay with this level until 80-90% of your students seem to do well with it, or until students start saying, "These are really easy- don't you have anything more challenging?" Then move to a 4x4 Medium puzzle. Keep this progression going until you find "their level" of competence. You can, of course, print different levels of puzzles for the class and let students pick their own puzzle. This seems to work for my students. Best wishes, - Mr. L Hi Jimmy,
For KenKen with 6th graders, a 4×4 puzzle using Easy should work fine. My suggestion would be to stay with this level until 80-90% of your students seem to do well with it, or until students start saying, “These are really easy- don’t you have anything more challenging?” Then move to a 4×4 Medium puzzle. Keep this progression going until you find “their level” of competence. You can, of course, print different levels of puzzles for the class and let students pick their own puzzle. This seems to work for my students. Best wishes,
- Mr. L

]]> By: Jimmy T http://www.mrlsmath.com/math-activity/kenken-construction-building-puzzles-in-the-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-1284 Jimmy T Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:55:02 +0000 http://www.mrlsmath.com/?p=826#comment-1284 Hi, I was just wondering if your students are in 6th grade how hard should it be 5*5 6*6 9*9 Thanks Hi,
I was just wondering if your students are in 6th grade how hard should it be 5*5 6*6 9*9

Thanks

]]> By: blombard http://www.mrlsmath.com/math-activity/kenken-construction-building-puzzles-in-the-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-750 blombard Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:27:31 +0000 http://www.mrlsmath.com/?p=826#comment-750 Hi Bobby, Some of the puzzles designed by students may, in fact, have more than one solution (or none at all). I didn't check the puzzles for accuracy because the main focus of the activity was to offer students the opportunity to move beyond the playing of KenKen to the designing of the game. When I ask students to do things like this, invariably it leads to a greater understanding of the <strong>structure of the game</strong>. Almost all KenKen puzzles found online are generated by a <strong>software algorithm</strong> that provides for a unique solution - this was not a requirement of my student project. - Mr. L Hi Bobby,
Some of the puzzles designed by students may, in fact, have more than one solution (or none at all). I didn’t check the puzzles for accuracy because the main focus of the activity was to offer students the opportunity to move beyond the playing of KenKen to the designing of the game. When I ask students to do things like this, invariably it leads to a greater understanding of the structure of the game. Almost all KenKen puzzles found online are generated by a software algorithm that provides for a unique solution – this was not a requirement of my student project.
- Mr. L

]]> By: Bobby D http://www.mrlsmath.com/math-activity/kenken-construction-building-puzzles-in-the-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-749 Bobby D Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:53:03 +0000 http://www.mrlsmath.com/?p=826#comment-749 How do you ensure the puzzle has a unique solution? How do you ensure the puzzle has a unique solution?

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