No longer solely the domain of Mathematics, problem solving permeates every area of today's curricula. Ideally students are applying heuristics strategies in varied contexts and novel situations in every subject taught. This week's recommendations offer all kinds of activities from elementary through high school to promote this goal. Looking for an overview of problem solving strategies to model in your classroom? Try http://mathcounts.org/Problems/strategies.html and http://www.enc.org/topics/inquiry/ for discussions of sound instructional practices (thanks Jerry!). Also, to help promote basic problem solving literacy you may want to check out this elementary level Maths dictionary from down under at http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/ Once you get past the basic building blocks of "how to" these sites will be a real boon. Enjoy!

• Absurd Math - http://www.hrmvideo.com/abmath/
  When the World Wide Web was created, doorways were opened to other dimensions. Net surfers run the risk of being sucked into one of them. Excellent problem solving simulations emphasizing prealgebra skills. Want a similar site with geometry tie-ins? Check out the Challenge of the Seven Cups at http://www.hrmvideo.com/abmath/7cups/index.html
• Elementary Problem of the Week - http://mathforum.org/elempow/
  The Math Forum continues to host this project that challenges elementary students with non-routine problems and encourages them to verbalize their solutions. In conjunction with a companion project, registered students will have their submissions answered by "Visiting Math Mentors" and will also have the opportunity to assume the role of mentor.
• Escape from Knab - http://www.escapefromknab.com/
  This simulation finds your students on the planet Knab. By making the right financial decisions they can find their way back to Earth - a different game every time you play. Certain sections of this simulation require Shockwave, so make sure you have the plugin installed ahead of time.
• Famous Problems in the History of Mathematics - http://mathforum.org/isaac/mathhist.html
  The Math Forum offers this wonderful collection of timeless Math puzzlers such as The Bridges of Konigsberg, the Pythagorean Theorem and the properties of prime numbers. This is a great companion to the AIMs Historical Connections in Mathematics series.
• Figure This! - http://www.figurethis.org/
  Subtitled Mathematics Challenges for Families, Figure This! engages middle school students with problem solving activities based in real world applications. Tasks like Movie Money, Morphing and Gifts Galore require students to apply their problem solving skills in addressing presented dilemmas. You can even download challenges from the website.
• Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles - http://www.cut-the-knot.com/
  Alexander Bogomolny presents these heuristics-rich topics like Games and Puzzles, Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, Probability, Analog Gadgets, Mathematics as a language, Proofs in Mathematics, the Inventor's Paradox which cover assorted teacher ideas and activities for secondary students.
• Inventions - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/96/inventions/
  Made by National Geographic, this Shockwave-based site invites students to help test out the workings of a new contraption while working through five different activities. The invention games are especially clever and a nice hook to get kids thinking.
• The Last G.A.S.P. Bicycle Tour - http://wneo.org/gasp/
  This site is based on Gary Nero's 20,600 bike tour around the United States, and it includes a number of excellent problem solving opportunities like the Mathematics Pothole (Problem) of the Week, an Everglades WebQuest, and the challenge to design the perfect park for your community.
• Mega-Mathematics - http://www.c3.lanl.gov/mega-math/
  Los Alamos National Laboratories offers these lessons that cover intriguing mathematical concepts in ways that even elementary children can internalize them - really neat approaches with complete lesson plans. The formatting is more text than not, but the content is first rate.
• Online Math Applications - http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/4116/
  This ThinkQuest Junior site is anything but junior in its applications: Investing, Music, Science, History.....all presented with higher level tasks such as figuring out how to double the speed of an Intel processor and how to estimate how much college is going to cost. Great topics with lots of information as well as challenging activities.
• Plane Math - http://www.planemath.com/activities/pmactivitiesall.html
  Plane Math contains three different levels of problem solving activities on topics like elapsed time, capacity, measurement, budgeting money and design engineering - great for middle grades. Pioneer Plane and Plane Math Enterprises require Shockwave and are simulations of real world problem solving applications.
• The Proof - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/proof/
  NOVA offers this excellent presentation on Fermat's Last Theorem, including how Sophie Germain disguised herself just for the chance to help tackle this question and how Andrew Wiles finally solved the problem in the modern era. Be sure to check out the Shockwave based interactive proof for the Pythagorean Theorem while you're there.
• The Space Place - http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/
  This site is designed by NASA for elementary students to have fun while probing space science. There's a variety of puzzles and activities for beginning heuristics development. Check out the "Design a Tortilla Spacecraft" contest!
  

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