Teacher Stories: ThinkFun around the World
American School of Bombay | Arlington Academy of Hope | Binario Center
A Teacher's Lifelong Love of Puzzles Inspires Students in Mumbai, India
Jason Roy, Math Teacher
The American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India
I have been a huge fan of ThinkFun and have used and enjoyed your products for a very long time. My friend had the Spin Out puzzle when back in middle school (early nineties), so that was the first I knew of the company. It was shortly after this that I took Algebra 1 with Ms. Bracy. On one of the first days of class she challenged us to a game of Nim, and I, of course, agreed to play her. She beat me (no surprise there), but I went to the library and found Martin Gardner's "Second Book of Mathematical Diversions" which gives a great explanation of how Nim works and how to win using binary numbers. I spent a few days writing a little pamphlet about Nim and then used it to win the next week in class. This was great fun. At this point I already knew I wanted to be a teacher but was not sure of what… math was becoming a possibility.
In high school I had many great math teachers, most memorable from the puzzling aspect was Ms. Halbur as she had a couple of shelves of puzzles in her room that we could work on in our spare time. I knew my classroom would have to have these shelves for puzzles. In college, I decided to major in mathematics with a goal of teaching high school. My professors were awesome and did a great job embracing my love of puzzles and the fact that I wanted to be a teacher. During our math club Yankee Swap the first year, my teacher gave me the Brick by Brick puzzle, and I sat down and solved the whole set. If you spend some serious time with that puzzle, you can actually start to see the solutions in the cards – it is weird but true. Meanwhile, another professor and I would meet during lunch to try to solve the difficult Binary Arts Triple Cross puzzle. Although we didn't solve it, it was cool to put some of the group theory stuff I had learned in Abstract Algebra to use, and we did make some progress. Some years later I got the solution in the mail from you guys and saw you used a similar notation to the one we created. I was further pumped that a puzzle problem showed up on that year's Putnam Exam (an annual college math contest), and I was able to solve it and actually earn some points!
During college, I started buying Binary Arts puzzles as often as possible so that when I started teaching I could have a full array for the kids to solve. I was going for, as my methods teacher called it, "The Museum Effect." Now, 11 years later, I have nearly all your puzzles, and most of them are in my classroom. I was especially appreciative when you first offered the online teacher specials because I was able to stock up on extra puzzles to last me a lifetime.
I started off teaching in New Hampshire and developed a course called Problem Solving where I used lots of your puzzles as well as the excellent Key Curriculum Book "Crossing the River with Dogs." The class was a total blast to teach, and the kids loved it too. After seven years in New Hampshire, I got the opportunity to teach here in India at the American School of Bombay.
When I was in 8th grade my parents, both teachers, took jobs in Morocco and then Korea, and I got to go to high school overseas. I knew that someday I wanted to do the same, so when the opportunity arose for teaching in Mumbai I had to take it. It was a bit daunting packing up all my stuff and moving, but it has been awesome. My students are fantastic, and I am enjoying every minute learning about India and, of course, teaching math!
So I use puzzles a lot at school. They are all over my classroom so students are often fiddling with them, but I have also used them for more structured activities. I love, for example, making review games that incorporate a puzzle as a part of the challenge, often these will involve code-breaking or logic.
The last few years I have also designed Math Hunt activities that involve ThinkFun games. The Math Hunt was to be the fun part of our school's math competition. Taking cues from the old British TV show The Crystal Maze and also Survivor and The Mole, I created a math scavenger hunt. The 60 or so kids who participated were divided into teams and sent off, and throughout the school building there were puzzles for them to solve. Most of the puzzles were based on ideas from ThinkFun or that I got out of puzzle books, although I made some stuff up myself.
You have a fantastic company and I wish you lots and lots of further success. I visit your website frequently and am always checking the press release section in particular in hopes to learn about upcoming puzzles!
Math Dice in Uganda!
Cynthia Margeson
Arlington Academy of Hope
Math Dice have travelled all the way to Uganda!
I am a retired teacher from Arlington, Virginia, who has been teaching for part of each of the past five years at the Arlington Academy of Hope (AAH), a U.S.- supported primary school located in poverty-stricken rural Eastern Uganda. The school, with 325 students from 1st through 7th grades, was founded by Arlington, Virginia residents John and Joyce Wanda, who emigrated from Uganda in 1996.
Students at AAH learn largely by rote. They have few learning materials other than books. Using manipulatives similar to Math Dice is unheard of in most Ugandan schools. We were so excited when ThinkFun donated Math Dice to AAH — we knew this would be a fun and engaging way to help students develop critical thinking skills.
In January, I took 100 sets of Math Dice with me on my annual trip to AAH. Upon my arrival in Uganda, I held a workshop for teachers to teach them how children can learn to apply their math skills through games such as Math Dice. I then taught them to play Math Dice. The upper grade teachers were immediately convinced and introduced Math Dice to their students. Teachers of younger grades decided to simplify the game for their students by using just the operations of addition and subtraction to reach the target number.
The students love playing Math Dice. We always have a group of eager learners. It is wonderful to see how they are learning as they play. In addition to class time, they usually play during lunch. The photos show AAH students playing Math Dice in the library and the courtyard.
AAH plans to share Math Dice with its graduates who are in secondary school when they come back to the village during term breaks. Current Primary 6 (6th grade) and Primary 7 (7th grade) students are excitedly looking forward to challenging the graduates to a Math Dice tournament! AAH also hopes to introduce Math Dice to neighboring villages.
AAH is extremely grateful to ThinkFun for donating these Math Dice to them. Math Dice are making a huge difference at this school in rural Uganda by expanding the AAH students' math skills, and they are having fun doing it! Thank you, Bill and Charlotte!
Math Dice have made it to international status!
ThinkFun Club in Mexico!
Olga Micha,
Owner
Binario Center,
Mexico City, Mexico
Since the first time that I had the opportunity to play one of the ThinkFun games, I was impressed. It surprised me to notice the way a "little game" was able to grasp all my attention and made me reason (think)! My mind began to think and it seemed magical! The only thing that I desired was to continue ahead to try to solve another challenge that was a bit more difficult. The situation filled me with emotion and quickly I began to seek more and more ThinkFun games to challenge my brain. I was exited with the idea to know how far I could go utilizing my abilities and putting them to work.
I really discovered something incredible, an addictive material, with which the periods of attention are expanded and at the same time turns out to be extremely amusing (entertaining or Fun). I contacted Bill Ritchie and I explained to him that I was a teacher here in Mexico. I told him that I have worked with children for more than ten years in other projects and that I was surprised with the results when I played the games myself! Of course, I also congratulated him and I asked him permission to use the games with my students. I explained that my intention was to create a center where the children came not to buy the games, but to play and benefit from them, and He told me YES!!
Since then, almost 4 years ago now, I opened the "taller de juegos inteligentes Binario" (Binary intelligent play workshop), where our students come one or two times per week to play mostly ThinkFun games. Besides having an incredible and amusing time, they have obtained large academic and personal (character) benefits.
Definitely our students are persevering children. They have learned to see the problems as opportunities and not as obstacles. They are students that think and analyze the possibilities while playing. They are not afraid to make mistakes. They consider errors as part of the process to find solutions. But the most important thing is that when they come to "Binario" they are happy and having a great time!!!
Thanks Bill, thanks ThinkFun, thanks a thousand!!!
Desde la primera vez que tuve la oportunidad de desafiar a uno de los juegos de think fun, quede impresionada.
Me sorprendio darme cuenta la forma en como un "juguetito" logro captar toda mi atencion y hacerme razonar, mi mente se puso a pensar, parecia magico, lo unico que deseaba era seguir adelante para intentar obtener la solucion de un reto cada vez mas dificil. La situacion me lleno de emocion y rapidamente comence a buscar mas y mas juegos de thinkfun para retar a mi cerebro, me entusiasmaba la idea de darme cuenta que tan lejos podia llegar utilizando mis habilidades y poniendolo a trabajar.
Efectivamente descubri, algo increible, un material adictivo, con el cual los periodos de atencion se expanden y al mismo tiempo resulta sumamente divertido Contacte a Bill Ritchie, le explique que soy maestra aqui en Mexico, que habia trabajado con ninos desde hacia mas de diez anos en otros proyectos y que estaba sorprendida con los resultados al utilizar los juegos yo misma, por supuesto que ademas de agradecerle, lo felicite y le pedi permiso para utilizar los juegos con mis alumnos, le explique que mi intencion era poner un centro donde los ninos vinieran no a comprar el material, sino que a utilizarlo, y el me dijo que si!!
Desde entonces, hace ya casi 4 anos ,abri el taller de juegos inteligentes Binario, donde nuestros alumnos vienen una o dos veces por semana a jugar juegos en su mayoria de Thinkfun, y ademas de pasarsela increible y divertido, hemos obtenido grandes beneficios tanto academicos como personales.
Definitivamente nuestros alumnos son ninos perseverantes, que han aprendido a ver los problemas como oportunidades y no como obstaculos, son alumnos que piensan y analizan las posibilidades al jugar, que no les da miedo equivocarse, que ven los errores como parte de un proceso para encontrar soluciones, pero lo mas importante es que cuando vienen a Binario, ademas de ser felices, se la pasan realmente bien!!!
Gracias Bill, gracias Thinkfun, gracias mil!!!