The Mathematical Proof Behind Puzzle Day

Puzzle Day is a fantastic experience for all those with a math class on the day before April vacation.  It interrupts the monotony of math class and presents engaging puzzles for the students, but is there actually any mathematical significance in these puzzles. The short answer is yes.

When this question was posed to me, I could not come up with a convincing answer, so I went to the head of the Math Department herself Mrs. Branco.  She explained that “Puzzle Day is an event where all types of problem solving strategies are practiced.”  The problem solving strategies that are being practice by students, as explained by Mrs. Branco, are “logical reasoning and working backwards,” and “require students to think ‘out of the box.”  As Mrs. Branco explains Puzzle Day has students use the problem solving strategies they learn in math class in a rather fun scenario before vacation.