The title… well it’s about a quiz on BBC Four. Some people call it Only Connect. Because that’s its name. A few days ago I posted about the Lazy Caterer’s Sequence and this was the answer to a question on the quiz. I knew it instantly because of writing for this blog. That’s rare that is.
A few other things have been done tonight, although not a lot overall.
I spent a fair bit of it searching the computer downstairs for an old email. I need to hunt down an attachment for a thing at work but I fear it has gone, I have run out of ideas for search terms now. I’ll have to think some more.
The rest of the time was spent watching more of the second series of Fresh Meat. This was on Channel 4 ages ago but I’ve never made time to watch it. Just have one episode left now.
I also made a resource for the TES, a small thing based around ways to help children remember the terms parallel, perpendicular and the main feature of line symmetry using letters within the words. A simple idea but I’ve found it’s been effective in the past.
Finally, I have come across a few maths puzzles lately based on the old Eleven+ test, a system used for entry to grammar schools until the mid 1970s. It is still used to this day in a slightly different form. However, this particular puzzle grabbed me today as it is different to most questions used in schools today.
Twice one hundred and sixty-eight added to four times another number gives a total of four hundred and eighty. What is the other number?
[via 7Puzzle Blog]
Firstly, the numbers are written in words. That is fairly rare is testing these days.
Secondly, there are three steps required to solve it: doubling 168, subtracting that answer from 480 in order to find the number that has been multiplied by four… again, two step questions are the norm now.
Thirdly, it opens up an avenue of exploration – can children brought up on a diet of two step questions and different problems solve puzzles like this? Well, in short, not really. Only a couple of my class got anywhere near the answer this morning and for a lot of them it was just too difficult. Now, factor in that my class are not eleven, they are nine and ten, but the actual maths isn’t that difficult really. I think it will be valuable in the longer term to keep throwing this type of puzzle at them just to see their development.
