Shared Factors - A Quadratics Puzzle

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1 Shared Factors Puzzle

2 Adaptation by John Golden

3 Free Download of Shared Factors Puzzle

4 Puzzle Solutions

5 More Resources for Teaching Quadratics

6 More Activities for Teaching Polynomials

I shared this shared factors puzzle on twitter recently, but I thought I should share it on my blog as well.

Shared Factors Puzzle

Each side of the square shares a factor with each of its neighboring sides. Determine the missing values that make this statement true.

This would be a great task for including in a polynomials or quadratics unit. I look forward to seeing how others incorporate it into their classrooms.

Adaptation by John Golden

John Golden brilliantly suggested that this problem could be reframed using an area model. I love the box method for polynomials, so I found this approach to be really satisfying.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/mathhombre/status/1340128289558556674

If you like this approach, check out John Golden’s Geogebra adaptation.

Free Download of Shared Factors Puzzle

Shared Factors (PDF) (1108 downloads)

Shared Factors (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (376 downloads)

Puzzle Solutions

I intentionally do not share solutions to the puzzles I feature on my website because I strive to provide learning experiences for my students that are not google-able. I would like other teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms as well without the solutions being easily found on the Internet.

However, I do recognize that us teachers are busy people and sometimes need to quickly reference an answer key to see if a student has solved a puzzle correctly or to see if they have interpreted the instructions properly.

If you are a teacher who is using these puzzles in your classroom, please send me an email at sarah@mathequalslove.net with information about what you teach and where you teach. I will be happy to forward an answer key to you.