Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
A thoughtful shepherd used bales of straw to protect the area around his lambs. Explore how you can arrange the bales.
If I use 12 green tiles to represent my lawn, how many different ways could I arrange them? How many border tiles would I need each time?
What is the smallest number of tiles needed to tile this patio? Can you investigate patios of different sizes?
Investigate how this pattern of squares continues. You could measure lengths, areas and angles.
Investigate all the different squares you can make on this 5 by 5 grid by making your starting side go from the bottom left hand point. Can you find out the areas of all these squares?
What is the largest number of circles we can fit into the frame without them overlapping? How do you know? What will happen if you try the other shapes?
How many ways can you find of tiling the square patio, using square tiles of different sizes?
This problem is intended to get children to look really hard at something they will see many times in the next few months.
Arrange your fences to make the largest rectangular space you can. Try with four fences, then five, then six etc.
These pictures show squares split into halves. Can you find other ways?
Cut differently-sized square corners from a square piece of paper to make boxes without lids. Do they all have the same volume?
What happens to the area of a square if you double the length of the sides? Try the same thing with rectangles, diamonds and other shapes. How do the four smaller ones fit into the larger one?
Can you continue this pattern of triangles and begin to predict how many sticks are used for each new "layer"?
If we had 16 light bars which digital numbers could we make? How will you know you've found them all?
When newspaper pages get separated at home we have to try to sort them out and get things in the correct order. How many ways can we arrange these pages so that the numbering may be different?
What do these two triangles have in common? How are they related?
Explore one of these five pictures.
Polygonal numbers are those that are arranged in shapes as they enlarge. Explore the polygonal numbers drawn here.
How many tiles do we need to tile these patios?
A follow-up activity to Tiles in the Garden.
In this investigation we are going to count the number of 1s, 2s, 3s etc in numbers. Can you predict what will happen?
Follow the directions for circling numbers in the matrix. Add all the circled numbers together. Note your answer. Try again with a different starting number. What do you notice?
Place the 16 different combinations of cup/saucer in this 4 by 4 arrangement so that no row or column contains more than one cup or saucer of the same colour.
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
I cut this square into two different shapes. What can you say about the relationship between them?
Can you find ways of joining cubes together so that 28 faces are visible?
The red ring is inside the blue ring in this picture. Can you rearrange the rings in different ways? Perhaps you can overlap them or put one outside another?
Use the interactivity to find all the different right-angled triangles you can make by just moving one corner of the starting triangle.
You cannot choose a selection of ice cream flavours that includes totally what someone has already chosen. Have a go and find all the different ways in which seven children can have ice cream.
Ana and Ross looked in a trunk in the attic. They found old cloaks and gowns, hats and masks. How many possible costumes could they make?
Investigate the number of faces you can see when you arrange three cubes in different ways.
Compare the numbers of particular tiles in one or all of these three designs, inspired by the floor tiles of a church in Cambridge.
The challenge here is to find as many routes as you can for a fence to go so that this town is divided up into two halves, each with 8 blocks.
While we were sorting some papers we found 3 strange sheets which seemed to come from small books but there were page numbers at the foot of each page. Did the pages come from the same book?
If you have three circular objects, you could arrange them so that they are separate, touching, overlapping or inside each other. Can you investigate all the different possibilities?
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant numbers?
Is there a best way to stack cans? What do different supermarkets do? How high can you safely stack the cans?
Many natural systems appear to be in equilibrium until suddenly a critical point is reached, setting up a mudslide or an avalanche or an earthquake. In this project, students will use a simple. . . .
How many shapes can you build from three red and two green cubes? Can you use what you've found out to predict the number for four red and two green?
Start with four numbers at the corners of a square and put the total of two corners in the middle of that side. Keep going... Can you estimate what the size of the last four numbers will be?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
Here is your chance to investigate the number 28 using shapes, cubes ... in fact anything at all.
If the answer's 2010, what could the question be?
Using different numbers of sticks, how many different triangles are you able to make? Can you make any rules about the numbers of sticks that make the most triangles?
An investigation involving adding and subtracting sets of consecutive numbers. Lots to find out, lots to explore.
How many different cuboids can you make when you use four CDs or DVDs? How about using five, then six?
This activity asks you to collect information about the birds you see in the garden. Are there patterns in the data or do the birds seem to visit randomly?
Explore the different tunes you can make with these five gourds. What are the similarities and differences between the two tunes you are given?
Can you find out how the 6-triangle shape is transformed in these tessellations? Will the tessellations go on for ever? Why or why not?
This challenge asks you to investigate the total number of cards that would be sent if four children send one to all three others. How many would be sent if there were five children? Six?