Quadratic Area Puzzles
I am really liking these quadratic area puzzles from Chritsopher (Bow Tie Teacher on twitter) that are posted for free on TES. They are inspired by Naoki Inaba‘s Area Maze puzzles with a quadratic spin on things.
For next year, I think I would like to do some sort of activity at the beginning of the year with the original area maze puzzles. Then, I would like to introduce these puzzles during our quadratics unit. After solving these puzzles, I would like to challenge my students to create their own!
I’m blogging about this plan so I don’t forget!
The fourth puzzle is so large that I had trouble downsizing it enough to take a screenshot. It definitely shows up better in the Word document posted to TES!
Digital Version of Quadratic Area Puzzles
Kathy Henderson has shared a digital version of these quadratic area puzzles in Desmos Activity Builder.
Puzzle Solutions
Puzzle solutions are available on a password-protected solution page. I do not openly post the puzzle answer keys because one of my goals as a resource creator is to craft learning experiences for students that are non-google-able. I want teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms without the solutions being found easily on the Internet.
Please email me at sarah@mathequalslove.net for the password to the answer key database featuring all of my printable puzzles and math worksheets. I frequently have students emailing me for the answer key, so please specify in your email what school you teach at and what subjects you teach. If you do not provide these details, I will not be able to send you the password.
Not a teacher? Go ahead and send me an email as well. Just let me know what you are using the puzzles for. I am continually in awe of how many people are using these puzzles with scouting groups, with senior adults battling dementia, or as fun activities in their workplace. Just give me enough details so I know you are not a student looking for answers to the puzzle that was assigned as their homework!
Most of my students enjoyed these puzzles. They are kind of fun to make also.