I believe when Sudoku was first introduced by the New York Times, there was a statement of the type “Don’t worry. There is no math involved.” <Or maybe this is apocryphal. Fact Checking needed!>

But Sudoku is pure mathematics: it’s systematic thinking, deduction, and logic.

Here’s an idea that might engage students in online class discussion and encourage deep mathematical thinking. It could be fun!

Post an online Sudoku puzzle each week and have a chat forum for your students to enter answers for the cells. 

Add the stipulation that they must explain their reasoning for why a number is correct for a particular cell and that explanation must be deemed valid and correct by some proportion of classmates (who may question the reasoning in the chat). Only then is the number written into the puzzle. 

What do you think? To see the depth of mathematical thinking Sudoku puzzles can hold, check out this video on the most stunning Sudoku puzzle of all (and all the other videos on this channel).

HELLO! MY NAME IS ____

Have your students look at this site to create a mathematical formula that spells their names! Can they understand the two videos that explain the mathematics? Might they use the graph or their Personal Polynomial as their online screen name?

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