by Michelle Pauls
The Maximizing Math and Puzzle Corner activities this month are two parts of the same activity--my own variation of a mind reading puzzle.In the Puzzle Corner portion, students will experience the puzzle. In the Maximizing Math portion, they will analyze the puzzle and try to develop their own. This type of mind reading puzzle is likely familiar to you. Many versions exist, but they all follow the same basic format. You are directed to make a secret selection and then follow a series of directions given to you by the "mind reader." For example, ,picking any two-digit number and then performing a series of operations on that number.With an ease and confidence that is astonishing, the mind reader is able to tell you the result of the steps you took �which number you came up with, what animal you are thinking of, which country you ended up in, etc.
The Puzzle Corner this month is being provided as a Adobe Acrobat PDF document. To view this document you will need the freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader available from http://www.adobe.com.
Zoo-Knowlogy (995k)