Strategic Learning Opportunities

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    Word Game

    This website features word games such as Boggle, Shingoki, Futoshiki, Sudoku, and much more! 


    Tower of Hanoi

    This strategy puzzle is a very famous puzzle that was featured in Scientific America. "The tower of Hanoi (also called the Tower of Brahma or the Lucas tower was invented by a French mathematician Edouard Lucas in the 19th century. It is associated with a legend of a Hindu temple where the puzzle was supposedly used to increase the mental disciple of the young priest. The young priest was given 64 gold disks stacked neatly on one of the posts. Each disk rested on a slightly larger disk. The priests' goal was to re-create the stack on a different post by moving disks, one at a time. to another post with the rule that a larger disk could never be placed on top of a smaller disk." (written for Science Buddies by Sabine De Brabandere and published on October 26, 2017) The online version of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle requires you to do the same as the young priests. To emerge victoriously, you must figure out the least complicated way to move all the disks from one peg to another peg. The catch is that no larger disk may be placed on a smaller disk at any time. 

    There is no one way to solve the puzzle. The goal is to solve the Tower of Hanoi in the smallest number of moves possible. 

    The object of the strategy game is to move all the disks over to Tower 3 (with your mouse). But you cannot place a larger disk onto a smaller disk.

    Click the Tower of Hanoi title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


     

    circuit puzzle

    Whether you know them as network puzzles or circuit puzzles, we've got thousands of unique puzzles here for you to solve. You can play for fun or register a free account and compete against other players for the Circuit Puzzle Hall of Fame!

    How to Play
    After clicking the Unolingo title above, follow these simple directions. The puzzle grid consists of a series of differently shaped wire segments, lightbulbs, and a battery (the green circle, always in the center of the puzzle). An electrical charge will flow from the battery's terminals out through any wires that are directly connected to it. Your task is to rotate the pieces in the grid in such a way so that every piece of wire and every lightbulb is "electrified", without creating any loops. There is one, and only one, unique solution to each puzzle.

    All pieces, including the battery (green circle) in the center, can be rotated. Left-click or tap to rotate a piece clockwise, right-click to rotate it counter-clockwise. The puzzle will auto-submit once the correct solution has been uncovered.

    Rules of Play
    1) Every wire section and every lightbulb must be electrified.
    2) All ends of the circuit must terminate in a lightbulb.
    3) "Loops" are not allowed in the circuit. A "short circuit" spark will appear whenever a loop is detected.

    Click the Circuit Puzzles title above to get started!

     (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


     

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    Unolingo

    Like a Sudoku puzzle with letters, each Unolingo puzzle is a 10x10 crossword without clues!

    Click the Unolingo title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


    Tangrams

    The ancient Chinese art of tangram puzzles is a popular mathematical problem-solving activity, finely tuned to bring out the best in pupils.

    The tangram puzzle consists of 7 geometric pieces which are normally boxed in the shape of a square. The pieces, called 'tans', are used to create different patterns including animals, people, numbers, geometric shapes, and many more.

    Click the Tangram title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


     

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    Futoshiki

    Futoshiki is a board-based puzzle game, also known under the name Unequal. It is playable on a square board having a given fixed size (4x4 for example).

    The purpose of the game is to discover the digits hidden inside the board's cells; each cell is filled with a digit between 1 and the board's size. On each row and column each digit appears exactly once; therefore, when revealed, the digits of the board form a so-called Latin square.

    At the beginning of the game, some digits might be revealed. The board might also contain some inequalities between the board cells; these inequalities must be respected and can be used as clues to discover the remaining hidden digits.

    Each puzzle is guaranteed to have a solution and only one. To indicate a move, click the desired square and select a digit or the delete sign (X); you can also use the digits on your keyboard (in this case, the digit 0 is equivalent to the delete sign).

    For tips and tricks, you can check out our tutorial: how to solve a Futoshiki puzzle.

    Click the Futoshiki title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


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    chess

    This website allows you to practice your chess strategy skills.

    Click the Chess title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


     

    kakuro

    Kakuro is like a crossword puzzle with numbers. Each "word" must add up to the number provided in the clue above it or to the left. Words can only use the numbers 1 through 9, and a given number can only be used once in a word. Every kakuro puzzle has one and only solution and can be solved through logic alone.

    Click the Kakuro title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


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    SET

    Rules:

    The object of the game is to identify a 'Set' of three cards from 12 cards laid out on the table. Each card has a variation of the following four features:

    1) COLOR: Each card is red, green, or blue.
    2) SYMBOL: Each card contains ovals, squiggles, or diamonds.
    3) NUMBER: Each card has one, two, or three symbols.
    4) SHADING: Each card is solid, open, or striped.


    A 'Set' consists of three cards in which each feature is EITHER the same on each card OR is different on each card. Any feature in the 'Set' of three cards is either common to all three cards or is different on each card.

    Examples of sets:
    1) color: different on each card, symbol: the same on each card (oval), number: the same on each (two), shading: the same on each card (solid)

    2) color: different on each card, symbol: different on each card, number: different on each card, shading: different on each card

    3) color: the same on each card (green), symbol: the same on each card (diamond), number: different on each card, shading: different on each card

    Click the SET Online title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


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    tetravex

    TetraVex is an edge-matching puzzle. The player is presented with a grid (by default, 3x3) and nine square tiles, each with a number on each edge. The objective of the game is to place the tiles in the grid in the proper position as fast as possible. Two tiles can only be placed next to each other if the numbers on adjacent faces match.

    Click the TetraVex title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)

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    Sudoku is a logic-based puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid (also called "boxes", "blocks", "regions", or "sub-squares") contains all the digits from 1 to 9. The same single integer may not appear twice:

    in the same 9x9 playing board row
    in the same 9x9 playing board column or
    in any of the nine 3x3 subregions of the 9x9 playing board

    Click the Sudoku title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)


     

    kenken

    It’s not a crossword. It’s not some extreme version of tic-tac-toe. So what is KENKEN and where did it come from? Simply put, it’s a grid-based numerical puzzle that uses the basic math operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—while also challenging your logic and problem-solving skills. By altering the size of a KENKEN grid, from 3 x 3 up to 9 x 9, and employing different combinations of the math operations, five different difficulty levels can be generated, and a seemingly endless number of puzzles. (And many players seem determined to try them all!) In a way, KENKEN is like a game of pool or even chess: The more you think ahead to your next move and consider all the possible outcomes, the better you’ll get—and the smarter you’ll become!

    Click the KENKEN title above to get started!

    (GEP Outcome: Thinking Skills, Creativity Skills)