For the last Discovering Mathematics input was with Richard and about something which has been a huge part of my childhood and I still enjoy now.  Puzzles and Games are a fond memory of my brothers and sisters playing different games in front of the fire as well as arguments and enjoyment.

The games which first come to mind are – Solitaire, Monopoly, Kerplunk, Frustration, Cluedo, Hungry Hippos, Trivial Pursuit, Draughts, Chess, Rapidough, Pictionary, Bingo, Uno, Snap, Snakes and Ladders, Charades all of which I have played as a child and older too. I was lucky as a child to have 2 sisters and a brother and we were very close in age, just a year apart! This allowed for us to play these games without parent supervision at times when we were not fighting about the rules.

Games the first time at university (when I was 18 and slightly less mature!) changed slightly and involved drinking too. These were – Shot Roulette, Ring of fire (car game relating to the number or suit on the card), Battleshots….to name but a few.  Even though these were usually played before going out also contained the use of mathematics too.  The mathematical parts to it would have been forgotten when there were a few too many drinks involved!  Interesting to think back now that there was maths involved with getting drunk over 7 years ago.

Games which were discussed at the lecture were – suduko and mennies which require lots of different skills such as problem-solving, positional understanding, counting and many more. Suduko doesn’t actually require arithmetic but requires maths such as problem-solving. Below is an example of how to solve a basic suduko.

Rubiks cube is another game which doesn’t require arithmetic but requires systematical thinking and can be learned.  The fastest person can do this in less than 5 seconds.  I really struggle with this concept as its very difficult to do but with lots of practice I am sure it could be completed.

Maths is amazing and if you look far into all the games there will be some sort of mathematical theory to it!  I find this fascinating and think that children would benefit from playing more games which challenge their thinking and problem solving and it will also make some of the lessons more fun.

I feel the importance of having puzzles and games for children during childhood is they build many different skills and most have fond memories of games.  With reference to Ma, 2010 who describes the Profound Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics with Basic Ideas, Longitudinal Coherence, Multiple Perspectives and Connectedness.  Using the basic ideas in games helps with the understanding and likes of the banker in Monopoly will have to do simple addition and subtraction which is part of this Basic Ideas concept.

Reference:Ma, Liping (2010) Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers’ Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States. New York: Routledge.

Ma, Liping (2010) Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers’ Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States. New York: Routledge.