CTC I Summary 11/19/12

Today's lesson focused on lateral solutions. What is a lateral solution, you ask? 

Lateral solutions involve problem solving through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that might not be immediately obvious or requires us to put aside our unstated assumptions to arrive at an alternative answer. We started the day by walking backwards into our classroom, solved mazes backwards and played reverse tic-tac-toe (the person who gets three in a row loses!)

I handed out a two page homework sheet with different lateral thinking puzzles. If you have time this week, have your student work on them. We'll discuss the answers in class next week!

Also, here are this week's "fun links":

• An on-line plank puzzle from ThinkFun that your student may enjoy playing: River Crossing
  
• An on-line maze designer (cool!)
• And for the really ambitious, design your own maze!

Finally, two of our students shared some fantastic snowflakes that resulted from our symmetry class last week. Good work, guys!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

We use curriculum from Art of Inquiry, LLC