30 Tools in 30 Days: Day 17 MathPickle

Day 17: MathPickle

Today’s tool (website actually) goes out to all my Math Nerd buddies out there. (I say that with love and admiration.) Those folks who get excited about puzzling through a good mental challenge and those teachers who want their students to become the next problem solvers and mathematical thinkers. If that is you, then you need MathPickle.com in your life.

MathPickle.com is a website that contains standards-aligned puzzles, games, and problems for K-12 students. The original mind-bending, grade-appropriate puzzles, created by site founders Dr. Gordon Hamilton and Lora Saarnio, are designed to give all students the experience of productive struggle through challenging puzzles. According to the site…

 MathPickle gives every student – especially the top students – a regular experience of failure – starting in Kindergarten. This removes the stigma of failure from the classroom. MathPickle also gives every student a regular experience of success.

 

When you visit the MathPickle puzzle page, you can browse through the puzzles by grade level or by subject. Each puzzle includes a clear description, printable materials for students, and a list of related Mathematical Practices. (Sample puzzle – Pollinator Puzzle) I also love the fact that all the materials are Creative Commons Licensed so you can freely use them in your classroom and share the materials (with attribution, of course) with your students and colleagues.

 

The MathPickle Games page has a list of board games for home and classroom that build mathematical thinking and problem-solving. It is a great list of some fun games including the MathPickle 2017 game of the year Santorini, created by MathPickle’s very own Dr. Gordon Hamilton.

In addition to puzzles and games, there is an informational blog and (one of my favorite parts of MathPickle) a list of inspired people. Browse through the list of amazing mathematicians, educators, gamers, programmers, and more. Students can scroll through bios of some of the most inspirational problem solvers, thinkers, and dreamers of our time. The folks at MathPickle have also included pages of motivational quotes.

It is obvious that the MathPickle team is passionate about problem-solving, mathematics, and learning. Their puzzles are not just geared towards the high achieving kids but designed to support and encourage all learners to be problem-solvers and gain the skills needed to face wicked, messy, real-world challenges. Thier “About Us” page says it best.

MathPickle goes beyond arithmetic and computation and gets students into a pickle. Lessons are not nicely wrapped up. Students are left with raw and unresolved questions.

Keep up the great work MathPickle!