Age range:
Grades 5-12+

Introduction:
Our pre-algebra course includes a unit in Logic.  The puzzles that were used were those you might find in a Dell Logic Puzzle magazine.

I was concerned that my students with lesser language skills would struggle with semantics, and not get the Holmesian* logic training I wanted.  (*After eliminating the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true.)

Fortunately, I had played with a computerized logic game that could print puzzles for use on paper.  So I tried them with my students, and really liked the success I had.
 

The Game:
Harold the Honey Bee is up at dawn every morning, rousting the other bees from their comfortable quarters at the Honeycomb Hotel.  Harold tap-dances from room to room, visiting every room but once (time is critical in a bee's life, you know).  Bees (being different in many interesting ways from you and me) use various strange symbols upon the doors of their hotel rooms, with each floor having a different theme.

Honeycomb Hotel is a game of logic and deduction.  You must determine which symbols are on which doors of the Honeycomb Hotel, and the exact path that Harold takes in his task of awakening the workers.  Using the provided clues, you deduce where symbols can and can't be on the doors of the hotel, and which way Harold did (or didn't) go, until all is revealed.

Sample Puzzles:

• small
• medium
• large

• 11" x 8.5" posters of clue meanings
  • Doors
  • Enter/Exit
  • Left Of
  • Avoid Loops
  • NE to SW
  • Next to with a Door
  • Next to ... Either
  • Next to with a Wall
  • NW to SE
  • Pair among 3
  • Summary of Clue Meanings (8.5" x 11")
• generic small board for overhead
• generic medium board for overhead

• Introduction (1 day):
  • define the clues
  • play a medium puzzle on the overhead while students contribute & mark their copies
  • allow students to solve small puzzles themselves
  • Suggestion:  use only (erasable) pencil to solve puzzles - one color is fine
• Practice with small puzzles (1 day)
• (Day 2 or 3)  Do another medium puzzle with the class
• Practice with medium puzzles (2 days)
• Continued practice while other material is being taught (as much as needed - partial periods and homework)
• Quiz (1 day)
• Test (1 day)
  

  (My logic unit also included using Venn Diagrams to solve counting problems.)

  Over the course of 2-3 weeks, my students had to correctly complete 3 small and 5 medium-sized puzzles (beyond those done as a class and for practice).  I gave them a total of 8 medium and over a dozen small puzzles to practice with and to complete.  That way if they got frustrated, they could have a fresh start with a new puzzle.  I offered medium and large (!) puzzles for extra credit.
   

• I did not make posters for these rules:
  • Each room must have 4 walls and 2 doors
  • Each image must be in only one room
  • Only one image can be in each room

• Although using 2 colors can sound appealing, students must have erasable writing instruments, even when they have gotten good at the game.  So a single color, to mark out the impossible, and to draw in walls and doors, really works best.  (Simply leave blank the image that must be in a room.)

• Always work through a puzzle on the software before selecting and printing it for student use.  The program uses many more deductions than I teach my students.

• Realize that students can download a shareware version of the program for free.  So don't select puzzles in the shareware range (0-5).

• To keep your sanity while checking student work, print the special grading templates from the program, and copy them onto overhead transparencies.  Then you can hold the template over a student's paper, and see if they left the correct images in the rooms, and correctly marked the walls and doors.  (At this time, November 1999, you must request the special teacher's edition of the program to get the grading template feature.)

• To keep your sanity while grading quizzes and tests, use the grading templates and a holistic approach to partial credit.  Perhaps count the number of rooms the student got right, not how many images, walls and doors.