Variations on Intermediate Sudoku Logic Puzzles, Vol 1

Book excerpt: The Group Puzzles Publishing Company is a new education-oriented technology-driven publishing company. The company brings together under one roof, teaching experience that spans pre-school to college, decades of computer programming experience, and detailed knowledge of a wide range of existing publication software in order to provide teachers with effective educational materials at unprecedented prices. Like many newer "publishers without presses," we prepare books in a particular area of expertise and rely on other companies to provide manufacturing and distribution of our books. Like many teachers, we have tried to use puzzles to teach logic, and failed. We have, however, used that experience to design guaranteed correct puzzles with step-by-step solutions (rather than simple answer grids) which illustrate for students one possible deductive path to reason from each particular source puzzle to its solution. The availability of step-by-step deductive solutions for every puzzle is the critical missing link for the effective use of logic puzzles in an educational setting, just as working out algebra problems on the board showing all the intermediate steps is a more effective way to teach math than simply presenting students with problems and answers. There are other potential pitfalls to teaching logic using puzzles that are discussed in detail on our web site: http://www.grouppuzzles.com We believe that encouraging students to learn deductive reasoning is one the more pressing problems in the education system today. We also believe that one of the most important reasons why it is often not taught effectively is that there are simply not enough good educational materials available for teachers to use. We know that it is hard to make logic fun and to encourage students to practice logic regularly, which is why our focus is on puzzles. Our goal is to make costs as low as possible for teachers by specifying explicitly in our books, eBooks, and daily web site puzzles, that teachers may photocopy and use puzzles and solutions in their classes without any hassle or extra cost. There are no copyright, permission, or registration hurdles, and the answer to most objections posed by a school administrator will be found on the copyright page of the book in question. Teachers should explore the daily puzzles on the web site and try printing out puzzles at several different sizes and difficulty levels that you think might be appropriate for your class. Puzzles showing the step number at which an empty cell value can be deduced are particularly useful in class room settings with students that are not particularly familiar with sudoku-type logic puzzles.