![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.primefactorisation.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG_20180720_185349887.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf the puzzle gives the left and right numbers, the solution is pretty simple. Even so, I provided some of these on the first page so students could understand the problem before moving on to the actual challenge: finding the left and right numbers when given the top and bottom.<\/p>\n
You may have noticed that the solutions to these puzzles are related to quadratics. For instance, the first example matches the factorization x2<\/sup>\u00a0+\u00a09x\u00a0+\u00a014\u00a0=\u00a0(x\u00a0+\u00a02)(x\u00a0+\u00a07).\u00a0 The magic of these puzzles is that they start teaching kids this vital skill for Algebra without it being obvious that’s what happening.<\/p>\n If you’re teaching middle school or even upper elementary school, I really recommend giving your students these puzzles. You can change the difficulty as you need, introducing negatives when students are ready, and decimals or fractions when you really want to up the challenge. The puzzle is a logical thinking problem which is not too difficult to understand, and ties directly in a skill needed in Algebra. As it happens, I used these in Algebra 2, because that’s what I was teaching, but I wish I’d known to use these puzzles when I used to teach 7th grade. Your students’ future Algebra teachers will love you for it.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n