Other tags that relate to Symmetry Challenge
Symmetry. Generalising. Working systematically. Interactivities. Combinations. Addition & subtraction. Practical Activity. Factors and multiples. Visualising. Investigations.There are 339 results
Broad Topics > Mathematical Thinking > Working systematically
Symmetry Challenge
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Systematically explore the range of symmetric designs that can be created by shading parts of the motif below. Use normal square lattice paper to record your results.
Single Track
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the best way to shunt these carriages so that each train can continue its journey?
Family Tree
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Use the clues to find out who's who in the family, to fill in the family tree and to find out which of the family members are mathematicians and which are not.
Jigsaw Pieces
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How will you go about finding all the jigsaw pieces that have one peg and one hole?
Pasta Timing
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Nina must cook some pasta for 15 minutes but she only has a 7-minute sand-timer and an 11-minute sand-timer. How can she use these timers to measure exactly 15 minutes?
Creating Cubes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Arrange 9 red cubes, 9 blue cubes and 9 yellow cubes into a large 3 by 3 cube. No row or column of cubes must contain two cubes of the same colour.
Professional Circles
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Six friends sat around a circular table. Can you work out from the information who sat where and what their profession were?
Ordered Ways of Working Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps if you have an ordered approach.
Elf Suits
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If these elves wear a different outfit every day for as many days as possible, how many days can their fun last?
Ancient Runes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The Vikings communicated in writing by making simple scratches on wood or stones called runes. Can you work out how their code works using the table of the alphabet?
Counters
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be removed. Click to remove them. The winner is the last one to remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
Encouraging Primary Children to Work Systematically
Age 3 to 11
This article for primary teachers suggests ways in which to help children become better at working systematically.
This Pied Piper of Hamelin
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Team Scream
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Seven friends went to a fun fair with lots of scary rides. They decided to pair up for rides until each friend had ridden once with each of the others. What was the total number rides?
Ordered Ways of Working Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps to have an ordered approach.
Home City
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Use the clues to work out which cities Mohamed, Sheng, Tanya and Bharat live in.
Finding All Possibilities Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities focus on finding all possible solutions so if you work in a systematic way, you won't leave any out.
Fake Gold
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
A merchant brings four bars of gold to a jeweller. How can the jeweller use the scales just twice to identify the lighter, fake bar?
Finding All Possibilities Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities focus on finding all possible solutions so working in a systematic way will ensure none are left out.
Display Boards
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Design an arrangement of display boards in the school hall which fits the requirements of different people.
Seating Arrangements
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Sitting around a table are three girls and three boys. Use the clues to work out were each person is sitting.
Bunny Hop
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the smallest number of jumps needed before the white rabbits and the grey rabbits can continue along their path?
Seven Pots of Plants
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
There are seven pots of plants in a greenhouse. They have lost their labels. Perhaps you can help re-label them.
Open Boxes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you work out how many cubes were used to make this open box? What size of open box could you make if you had 112 cubes?
Calendar Cubes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Make a pair of cubes that can be moved to show all the days of the month from the 1st to the 31st.
Whose Face?
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
These are the faces of Will, Lil, Bill, Phil and Jill. Use the clues to work out which name goes with each face.
Ribbon Squares
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the largest 'ribbon square' you can make? And the smallest? How many different squares can you make altogether?
Crack the Code
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The Zargoes use almost the same alphabet as English. What does this birthday message say?
Shunting Puzzle
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you shunt the trucks so that the Cattle truck and the Sheep truck change places and the Engine is back on the main line?
Cover the Tray
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These practical challenges are all about making a 'tray' and covering it with paper.
Possible Pieces
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you create jigsaw pieces which are based on a square shape, with at least one peg and one hole?
Multiplication Squares
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you work out the arrangement of the digits in the square so that the given products are correct? The numbers 1 - 9 may be used once and once only.
Centred Squares
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge, written for the Young Mathematicians' Award, invites you to explore 'centred squares'.
Dice Stairs
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you make dice stairs using the rules stated? How do you know you have all the possible stairs?
Square Corners
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?
Wag Worms
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube. Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.
Map Folding
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Take a rectangle of paper and fold it in half, and half again, to make four smaller rectangles. How many different ways can you fold it up?
Cubes Here and There
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Two Egg Timers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you measure and how?
How Many Times?
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
On a digital 24 hour clock, at certain times, all the digits are consecutive. How many times like this are there between midnight and 7 a.m.?
Chocs, Mints, Jellies
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In a bowl there are 4 Chocolates, 3 Jellies and 5 Mints. Find a way to share the sweets between the three children so they each get the kind they like. Is there more than one way to do it?
The Moons of Vuvv
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is between each super-eclipse?
Hexpentas
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
Painting Possibilities
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This task, written for the National Young Mathematicians' Award 2016, involves open-topped boxes made with interlocking cubes. Explore the number of units of paint that are needed to cover the boxes. . . .
Plates of Biscuits
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you rearrange the biscuits on the plates so that the three biscuits on each plate are all different and there is no plate with two biscuits the same as two biscuits on another plate?
Prison Cells
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
There are 78 prisoners in a square cell block of twelve cells. The clever prison warder arranged them so there were 25 along each wall of the prison block. How did he do it?
Dart Target
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This task, written for the National Young Mathematicians' Award 2016, invites you to explore the different combinations of scores that you might get on these dart boards.
Knight's Swap
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
Waiting for Blast Off
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
10 space travellers are waiting to board their spaceships. There are two rows of seats in the waiting room. Using the rules, where are they all sitting? Can you find all the possible ways?
Tri-five
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Find all the different shapes that can be made by joining five equilateral triangles edge to edge.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.