square play

This game is interesting in that students can make the board before they start, investigate the maths behind it, have a bit of fun and then make a display at the end!
Using a piece of A4, students make a square. Then make squares from A5 down to A8 paper and arrange in the pattern shown. This is more enjoyably (and informatively) done by folding paper than measuring. Use of coloured paper will make this more attractive. Students must be reasonably accurate.
Before you start the game, you can ask students to explain why the squares fit together in this way. [This requires pythagoras and the knowledge that the ratio of the sides of metric paper is 1:sqrt(2) ]
So, the game is like nine-men's morris, except with teams of 7. Each team places a player, one at a time, on a chosen intersection point. Each team then takes turns to move one player; the player chosen can move along one line each turn. The aim of the game is to form a square of 4 players. If you make a line of 3 players with a player from the other team, you capture their player.
When you've finished playing, why not make a 'patchwork quilt' display from all the grids. An extension of this idea is given in the article 'Paper Patterns with metric paper' by William Gibb in the Mathematics in School magazine from the MA.
Using a piece of A4, students make a square. Then make squares from A5 down to A8 paper and arrange in the pattern shown. This is more enjoyably (and informatively) done by folding paper than measuring. Use of coloured paper will make this more attractive. Students must be reasonably accurate.
Before you start the game, you can ask students to explain why the squares fit together in this way. [This requires pythagoras and the knowledge that the ratio of the sides of metric paper is 1:sqrt(2) ]
So, the game is like nine-men's morris, except with teams of 7. Each team places a player, one at a time, on a chosen intersection point. Each team then takes turns to move one player; the player chosen can move along one line each turn. The aim of the game is to form a square of 4 players. If you make a line of 3 players with a player from the other team, you capture their player.
When you've finished playing, why not make a 'patchwork quilt' display from all the grids. An extension of this idea is given in the article 'Paper Patterns with metric paper' by William Gibb in the Mathematics in School magazine from the MA.