Mathematics

Was very inspired by the Maths Olympiad students during weekend service.

Sometimes, I blame our educational system for instilling a rote learning behaviour in students that stifles creative thinking. However, exploratory learning can be acquired.

I was stumbled by a number puzzle that my sister-in-law posted on her blog, and being unwilling to admit defeat, I tried to google for the answer :p
During my search, I came across this "Ask Dr. Math" forum website. I was really amazed by the elementary questions that were posted to the forum. Some of the questions I only encountered when I got to Secondary and JC, whereas they had the chance to try them out at elementary level. What's interesting was that these rules and formulas were not handed down to the students as learning mantras. Instead, they got to try some interesting "simple" questions from which they themselves later derived at those formulas unknowingly, which will help to make the connection between exploratory and understanding when they later progress to higher levels of education. Of course, some effort was also required on the students part to bring the questioning spirit further enough to ask and know more :p

I was particularly intrigued by this question that an elementary student posted to the forum : Chessboard Squares :)

At the forum, I also came across this fun game called the Polar Bear Club :
The game is in the name of the game, invented in the days of Genghis Kahn, polar bears around an ice hole. Like petals around a rose, you can count each bear's nose. (Toss a handful of dice -- about 6.) How many polar bears do you see?
Once someone guesses the riddle and can say the right number of polar bears for three consecutive tosses of the dice, he or she takes an oath not to reveal the secret and becomes a Certified Polar Bear.

I'm now a certified polar bear :D Took a long time before I managed to see it though... My colleague was much much faster... maybe I gave too many clues =p

This is the number puzzle that my sister-in-law posted : Using these numbers only once- 5, 5, 5, 1. Form a total of 24 using +, -, x or %.

Have fun :p