Whether in 1″ Maple, or 1/2″ pine, or 5″ cardboard, this block set known as Block by Block Jr. designed by puzzle designer Scott Kim has multiple uses and offers a variety of ways to practice spacial skills, problem solving and just have fun together. We highly recommend this activity for all ages. We ordered 1000 block from a
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Take and Make: Linkages Pop-up Card
Its a Day of the Dead Celebration at SE Branch Library! Kids were able to decorate and color a moveable candle. Staffers Mason Chng and Stefany Espinoza were joined by Jackie Salazar and Branch Manager Irene Magana-Noverola at the SE Branch Library. Video of the card moving. We cut the cardstock with the laser – a first for us and
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Take and Make:Frames for 21st Century Pattern Blocks at Asmbly Makerspace in Austin TX
Meet Art Zamora and Johnnie Perales, new partners who will be making 20 sets of frames for 21st Century Pattern Blocks. The blocks and the frames along with other math activities will be going to clubhouses for children who are residents in 18 low income housing complexes across Texas. Sets of pattern blocks and frames will also go to 4
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Take and Make: Tabletop Optical Illusions and Perspective Playground
We found an instructable on making chalk art patterns in CorelDraw. But guess what? — you can use this technique to poster print all kinds of fun 3d designs. The instructable is here. Its pretty cool! We sent a logo perspective box, aReuleux car and some conic section models to the NWMath Conference. PDFs can be printed in various sizes. “Chalk”
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Take and Make: Magician’s Rods
I learned about these on a video on Numberphile. . In the video they said the magic words “no longer available” and that was it, we had to make our own. Josephine Sheng designed these way back in 2017 I think, and we just never posted. We don’t like “tricking” people, but if you have a good half hour you can
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Take and Make: Printables to Guide your Project.
This is a transformer puzzle. The template has one side set up as a hexagon and the other side a square, but the hexagon design can still be rearranged as a square as well. Maddie Wallace made this logo for University of Wisconsin by hand. Be sure to use the link to get the PDF file. Transformer Puzzle Square to
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Take and Make: Superfluous Square from Ivan Moscovitch’s Supergames
Supergames by Ivan Moscovitch is a super fun book. This puzzle was a puzzle to convert to CAD, until intern Quan Nguyen and I realized that the “missing square” might be the same as the other missing square puzzles. In fact it is exactly the same. You may be able to see it looking at the solution blocks below. Corel,
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Take and Make: Puzzle A Day
This puzzle is available to buy various places, but you can also just make your own. We colored the wood with Bingo daubers! MH Intern Quan Nguyen worked out a number of solutions and made the CAD file for this one. Our files are available to use: in AI, SVG and CorelDraw Formats There’s also a handout that can be laminated
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Take and Make: Reuleaux Car
The Reuleaux Car The pieces are below, and an AI, SVG, and Corel File are available here. The file has a laser etch on the big wheel to guide the placement of the smaller piece. Glue two small pieces to one side and two large ones on the other side. The wheel holders work by sliding so you can install
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Take and Make: Area Trick Puzzle
This one is easy fun and somehow a little bit magical. Makes a great little math gift. The challenge is to make rectangles with pieces #1-5, #1-6, #1-7, and #1-8 (as below) Details, Instructions and Template Here. Here are the “versions” in a short video. These pieces are made in relation to eachother so there are many versions
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