[sorry that there’s no editing here – we are traveling and I threw this post together super fast.]
Jim Propp has been sharing some short videos on his new site:
Jim Propp’s Barefoot math blog
The post that has inspired 3 projects so far got started here:
and our first two projects on the game are here:
Jim Propp’s Swine in a Line game
Jim Propp’s Swine in a Line game part 2
Propp’s most recent video explains the key to the game. It has been a little over a week since we played with the game, so I thought it would be fun to hear what the boys remembered and then show them Propp’s solution.
So, we started with the boys giving a quick discussion of what they remembered – they remembered the rules and a few of the simple winning positions in the game. They also remembered a bit about how they came to understand how to find a solution to the game:
Now we played the game from Jim Propp’s challenge position and they followed their winning strategy:
Next we watched Jim Propp explain his solution:
The next part of our project is broken into two videos because our camera nearly ran out of memory filming the first part. This was super unlucky because my younger son just noticed the connection between Propp’s solution and and their solution. Oh well . . .
The fun part about this 10 minutes was seeing the boys connect the two solutions. I think the connection between the two solutions are pretty obvious to adults, but for kids that connection was a bit mysterious:
Here’s the second part:
Sorry for the quick write up. I think this is a great game for kids to play and study. It took two projects and then maybe 30 min after the second project for my kids to figure out how to win the game. So, definitely not easy, but really a fun process and something that I think will keep kids engaged for a long time.
Mike's Math Page 