SNAP and Lake Louise

Doing a SNAP Math Fair with students is an incredible tool to teach problem solving. I was always thrilled by the results when I did a math fair. Kids loved it, parents were always impressed by it.

It is an mathematics initiative that began in Alberta around 1997. Mike Dumanski, a highschool prinicipal, approached Andy Liu and asked if there was any way that math problems and puzzles could be incorportated in schools. And then SNAP Math Fairs were born!

As a teacher, the way I did math fairs with my schools, was I assigned a recreational math problem to partners or groups. The kids would solve the puzzle, rewrite the puzzle into a Theme that had been chosen for the Math Fair event, and then build a project that's major component was the model to help someone solve the problem. Then the night of the Math Fair Event, everyone would try to solve everyone else's projects. It was brilliant! Kids doing math for a real purpose, to a real audience! And they had so much fun! And they were improving their problem solving skills!

If you want to check out our website, go to www.mathfair.com

It was this year at Banff that I was honoured when I was invited to be a part of the Board of Directors for SNAP. Bill (in the picture with me) is also a Board member. This is why when I decided to work for ThinkFun that it was a great fit for all my passions. I knew that he would be sympathetic to the work I needed to continue to do for SNAP.

Before, when I was working for my board teaching, it was very difficult to get time to do conferences for SNAP. Now, it's a part of what I do!

After the Banff conference, the group took me to see Lake Louise. It was breath-taking! I really enjoyed doing something social with this group. I admire them all so much!
Above is Tiina Hohn, me, Andy Liu, Ted Lewis and Mr. Sun.
For the Banff conference, you have the opportunity to bring your spouses. (I have not yet convinced Chris to join me, hanging out all weekend doing math puzzles just doesn't appeal to him!) Above is Ted and his wife, Vivian. And Tiina and her husband.

ThinkFun Fun!

This photo was a part of a series of photos taken for our ThinkFun Game Club catalog. It was fun. This was taken in my "office" / math and puzzle room in my house. This is a beautiful space for me to work in because I'm surrounded by all the material things that inspire me. My collection of puzzles, my math books, my puzzle books, my games, etc... A real creative space for me. I have a couple of huge thank yous to mention for this photo to be taken. Some of you may recall that I usually wear my black Math Cape. Whenever I go to conferences for SNAP Math Fairs, I would fly around in my cape.
Well, I wanted another one for my ThinkFun work. And my mother, as she always does, came through. She traveled all across Simcoe county to find just the right material, and then sewed the cape together for me. She is wonderful and amazing and I love her! Thanks Mom!
I also want to thank my friend Mat. Mat took the photos for me. I met Mat last year as we taught at CCI together. He is a kindred spirit with me as we taught with similar styles. He loves puzzles and games and making math fun for students. He is a wonderful friend. And he's really good with a camera! So he came by on Friday (on his way to take his wonderful wife, Laura, out for her birthday dinner) and snapped away! I actually had fun despite having my photo taken, especially with the "action" shots! Mat was awesome and helped me make my Friday deadline. Thanks so much Mat!
So look out math world, I will be flying in to a conference near you! My mission: to spread the word about ThinkFun's Game Club - the program that has found the magic formula! Teaching kids problem solving while they play!

Beautiful Banff!

Here we are! What a great car ride to Banff, the view was spectacular and the company unbelievable! This was the first time I met Lily Yen. She turned out to be my "roommate" at this conference. She is a professor from BC and an absolutely lovely person. I really enjoyed meeting her here. It turned out (we figured this out the last day) that she works with Ed Barbeau ( a professor I adore and know very well from U of T) and Peter Crippin (a professor I also adore and is a mentor of mine). I know Ed and Peter from my work with University of Waterloo, we write the math contests together. And they know Lily and speak nothing but high praises for her!
Also from our car ride is Scott Kim (2nd from right). I met Scott at IPP Boston 2006. It was such an honour to meet him there. (one of those people who you meet and during that first conversation you think "I can't believe he's talking with me!" ) I spoke at length with him about SNAP Math Fairs, he was very interested and so I asked him if he would consider speaking at our Banff conference. He accepted and it was wonderful to get to know him better here! It was interesting, on our drive into Banff, Scott was telling us about a project he was working on. It was a video game where kids learn to play guitar. Scott was very excited about it. Well, it turns out it was Guitar Hero. Which is now a very popular game around Brandon's friends!
And of course Bill is on the far right. I could go on and on about him, but I'll just say he's turning out to be a wonderful boss!
(and please notice the beautiful deer behind us! they just come and graze here!)This is the beautiful building we eat our meals in. And look at those mountains in the background! This is the view from the dining hall. Those mountains are simply breath-taking!

Here we are at dinner. Andy, Bill, Scott, Me, and Chris (an amazing teacher from BC) The food at Banff is unbelievable! The choices and the quality of the food are incredible. Chris was so funny, he had to try every dessert available, and there were about 6 to choose for each meal!

This is Ted Lewis. He is a champion for SNAP Math Fairs. Here he is accepting flowers because this conference was officially renamed the "Ted Lewis Banff SNAP Math Fairs" Conference. Ted was the one who I contacted after Andy at U of Alberta. Ted was so helpful to me in setting up my first math fair. He is an amazing and generous person. I am honoured to work with him!

Here is our website:

www.mathfair.com

Check it out to learn about this amazing mathematical initiative! If you like recreational mathematics, problem solving and education, then this will interest you!

This is Jim Timourian. He is the Chair of the SNAP Board. He professed at U of Alberta with Ted and Andy, he currently works at Princeton.
I am honoured to say that this year I was asked to join the Board for SNAP.
Here is Scott Kim. A very talented game and puzzle designer. He also writes a column in Discover Magazine. He is very well known for his invertible writing. In this picture he is humming and whistling two different tunes at the same time! It was incredible to see! I've worked with him with ThinkFun, and it is such an honour!
Check him out at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kim

His website is
http://www.scottkim.com/

Andy Liu. Words cannot describe how much I honour this man. He has influenced my life in so many ways. He is the brains who, with another gentleman, invented SNAP Math Fairs. He is so brilliant and kind. Someone once described Andy to me as "Canada's number one problem solver." And he has been nothing but supportive and encouraging to me.

I remember my first IPP Puzzle Exchange and I was Andy's assistant. People would say to Andy, "Is this your daughter?" ( I was honoured) He'd say no. Then they'd ask, "Is she your student?" (A very high honour indeed, I can only wish I was that smart!) He'd politely say no. Then he came up with, "Tanya's my favourite teacher." A compliment I wore proudly!

Tiina Hohn. This is a woman I respect and admire. I love hanging out with Tiina and talking with her. She has been so wonderful to me when I come to Alberta to visit. She always thinks of me and takes me around to see the sites. She is so warm and friendly and so encouraging. I love doing conferences with her and I hope we will work together for many years to come!

Bill - another very important person in my life! I've been telling him for the past two years that I've known him, "Bill, you should hire me!" and now look at everything that is happening! Who would have thunk it?

So this was Banff 2007. I'll never forget in 2003 when I did my first math fair under the guidance of Ted, and emailing Ted at 2am in the morning after we had just done our first math fair and telling him about how excited I was. That first math fair was so well received by the students, other teachers (I had the most incredible staff that I worked with, they were an incredible group of professionals) and the parents were blown away.
I was invited by Ted to attend the Banff conference. He had told me that my conference fees and accommodations would be covered but I'd have to get to Banff. I remember thinking what a great opportunity but we couldn't afford for me to fly there.
I was speaking with a wonderful professor just after that who knew my enthusiasm and knew the math fair had gone extremely well, and I was jokingly telling him about Ted's offer for me to go to Banff. How a little ol' teacher such as myself was asked to go to Banff and speak about our math fair. He asked me if I was going, and I said no. He said why not, and I said because my family couldn't afford it.
He then said, and this I will always be thankful for and will never forget, "Tanya, you need to go and be with these people. Don't worry, I'll get you there." This was a defining moment in my life. He was absolutely right. "These people" who I just described some of them in this blog, inspire me and have been nothing but supportive of me, and this trip to Banff was setting me on a road that I would never have thought of in my wildest dreams. It all started at that moment. And I am so proud of where I have come and I'm excited about where I have yet to go!

Richard Guy and the Strens Collection

During one of my conversations with Martin (Gardner) he was telling me about a great Canadian Treasure we have. It's called the Strens Collection. He told me the story of how Canada came to acquire it.
There was a gentleman from the Netherlands named Eugene Strens who had collected over two thousand items, mostly recreational mathematics books. When Mr Strens died, his family was interested in selling his collection. They called Martin and asked if he knew anyone who would be interested in such a collection. Martin said he called a few people he knew, one of which was Richard Guy. Dr Guy is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary and someone Martin describes as "one of the best number theorists in the world". (Also one of the authors of one of my favourite sets of books called Winning Ways) Well, Martin says that as soon as Dr Guy heard that the collection was up for sale, he flew immediately to the Netherlands and got the collection. Martin said it was a real treasure that Canada has come to have due to Dr. Guy's quick reaction. Martin said that the collection even holds some of Henery Ernest Dudeney's original scrapbooks.

So I was amazed. I had actually met Richard and his lovely wife, Louise, in 2004 when I attended the SNAP Math Fairs Conference in Banff. I had met the wonderful Paul Vanderlind here and after the conference we were dropping Paul off at Richard's house (they were collaborating on a book at the time) and Richard and Louise invited us all in for tea. I remember
them being such a warm and friendly couple. They were a couple one dreams of being many years down the road, very evidently important to one another. It was a lovely visit I never forgot. Richard and Louise were very kind and welcoming.

So when Martin told me about Strens, I thought I would like to see the collection on my next visit back to Banff (a conference I speak at each year). So I contacted Richard and asked if I could come visit him and see the collection. He said absolutely and made arrangements for us to meet.

So on my way to the conference, I went to U of Calgary and met with Richard. He took me over to the MacKimmie Library, we met with the curator (she was lovely but I forget her name) and she took us back to the stacks. There Richard showed me the collection, highlighting some real gems. These are some of the photos from my visit.
Here are Richard and I standing in front of one of the stacks in the collection.

A wonderful picture of Richard in front of a collection of Ladies Diary and Gentleman's Diary from the early 1800's.This is Richard holding Sam Lloyd's Cyclopedia. This was a real thrill for me to see this book. I have books by Sam Lloyd, and have read about the Cyclopedia, but had never seen one before.
Eugene Strens was a friend with the mathematical artist, M.C.Escher. And in Mr Strens books, he has these beautiful book plates made by his friend Escher. There are many different book plates by Escher. These bookplates are worth looking at!This is a beautiful Escher that is in the Strens Collection.

So this visit was a real thrill for me to see. I was in heaven to see all these books (I collect these type myself) and could have spent weeks in there! So many books, so little time! I was generously allowed to stay and peruse for a few hours and to touch and go through so many amazing books that I have only "heard" of and many I wished I had in my own collection! There were even puzzles and games in the collection as well. There were also many additional donations that have been made to the collection. Martin himself had donated many foreign books from his own collection. Other donations were made by Charles W. Trigg, Wade Philpott, Alan R. Ness, Harry L. Nelson, Victor Meally, C.M.Jones, Leon Bankoff.

Here is the link to Strens:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/lib-old/SpecColl/strens.htm


After Strens, we went back to Richard's office and he invited me to look and peruse his own collection. Here are a couple of snapshots from my visit to his office.

When I was waiting for Richard at the start of my visit, I thought I would strategically wait near the elevators. If I remember correctly, his office is on the 3rd or 4th floor. I was waiting when one of the secretaries came by and before she got on the elevator said, "You're waiting for Dr Guy aren't you?" I said I was and she said his office door was now open. I looked down the hallway and looked puzzled, thinking, "How did I miss him?". She smiled and said, "He usually takes the stairs. He's very fit." This made sense to me. I remember reading in Crux that even though he's now 91 yeard old, he still climbs mountains.

So it was a thrilling visit to see an incredible collection hosted by a wonderful gentleman! I was indeed in the presence of Greatness!

And this was only my first of a three day visit to Alberta! After this I hopped on a bus back to the airport to meet up with Bill Ritchie, Scott Kim and Lily Yen. Wow, in the presence of greatness again! We rode together to Banff where we attended the SNAP Conference with Andy Liu, Ted Lewis, Tiina Hohn, Jim Timourian, Wen-Hsien Sun and so many wonderful teachers. But I'll have to save this story for another time.

Double Tree Fun

I was doing some work in Toronto at some wonderful math summer camps with TDSB this summer. It was getting close to the end of summer holidays and for the last week in August I was travelling to Virginia, ThinkFun Headquarters for work.
I decided I needed to spend some quality time with the kids before school began. So I brought them to Toronto and we stayed at this Doubletree hotel. The kids thought this was a real treat, they loved staying in a hotel. The wonderful, unexpected thing was when we had arrived, they give you these huge, warm, yummy cookies as a welcome. This was an appreciated surprise as we had been on the road for a couple of hours to get there. A great beginning!
The reason I picked this hotel, besides that it was only 10 minutes away from the school we were going to the next day, was it had these great slides. The kids loved swimming in the pool and the hot tub.


That night we also rented a movie in our room, (from 10 pm to midnight), but hey, we were on "holiday"! This hotel was in a nice location because we could just walk to the restaurants for dinner.
It was a nice little get-a-way before I had to travel. The only unfortunate thing is Chris had to work, so he had to stay at home. But we had fun and the kids got to see the math fair that the summer camp was presenting. Fun had by all!

First Day of School!

Last week was Back To School for the kids. I was very lucky as it was the first time I could join them since I did not have to go to school myself! Another perk of working for ThinkFun. So we got on our bikes and headed for school on September 4th. Here are some photos Chris took of the kids. Those are some beautiful kids! And I had nothing to do with picking out their clothes. As I saw the pictures, I was happy to see their shirts and shorts matched! With new backpacks and lunch bags, they were set to go!
Can you believe my baby is going into Grade 5! He's 10 years old! Double-digits, how did that happen? I'm just proud that he's such a great kid!
Kayla is in Grade 3! Her last year at the primary level. Kayla has turned out to be my most nervous of the three. Camp was at first hard for her and one downfall of me going with them to school, both Kayla and Max didn't want to go into the school with their new teachers. They were crying and wanting to stay with me. Maybe Chris was right, he said I should have stayed at home and said goodbye at our door. I liked taking them though and they were fine once they were in. Kayla is our social one too, lots of phone calls starting and arranging of playdates!
Boy that smile could make anything right couldn't it? I can't believe Max is in Grade 1! He's adjusting to full days, every day, just fine. He's definitely the one who's most concerned when I go away. He is very in-tuned to his mommy. In fact, if I get my hair cut, or get sick, he's the first to notice.

So they're off to school! They were not very excited for school to start. They actually never have been. I think because I've always had my summers off with them, they're used to one big two-month vacation full of fun. They like being at home.

I must admit this was a tough summer for me. Because I was consulting for ThinkFun, I had a lot of projects to get done. It was tough at time juggling my time with them and needing to get work done. It meant really late nights at times. Now that they're in school, it's much easier. I can just "go to the office" and put my head down and just work hard. I can get a lot done like this! And I love to greet them when they come home from school. And then I can put dinner on too. It's great! I am very blessed indeed!

IPP Puzzle Exchange and Beyond!

These are my last three photos to share from the exchange. To help you imagine what the exchange looks and feels like, here is a photo of what the set up looks like. Every puzzler has their name on a table and the tables are in long rows across the ballroom. The room is split down the middle and there are about three rows of tables on each side. The puzzles are set up on the tables. There are about 100 puzzlers doing the exchange and they are each allowed one assistant. The security is very tight and only the puzzlers and their assistants are allowed entry into this room. Anyone can apply to be a part of the exchange, however, you cannot participate your first year at IPP. The expectations for the puzzles are that they should not yet be on the market and the quality must be very good.Every puzzler involved in the exchange must bring 100 of the same puzzle that they have made or have had made. Then after the exchange they will take home 100 different puzzles. At the start of the exchange, someone signals its start, and then puzzlers either walk around exchanging puzzles and checking them off their master list, or some puzzlers sit at their tables and wait for others to come to them. And some do both! Here is the table at the front of the room where all the exchange puzzles are displayed.Below is Jerry's exchange puzzle. Its a tricky "Can you fit all four pieces into the frame?" puzzle. The next day after the IPP Exchange, (you are not allowed to buy puzzles at the Exchange, only exchange puzzles) there is an event called the IPP Puzzle Party where you may buy puzzles. People have booths (anyone, not just exchangers, and any puzzles, not just puzzles from the exchange) and everybody goes around and buys puzzles. The nice thing about being an assistant, is that I could see all the exchange puzzles and know the next day which ones I wanted to go around first to buy before they sold out. After the IPP Exchange, I bought this puzzle of Jerry's. The nice thing about getting puzzles at IPP is that I had Jerry sign this puzzle. It was Jerry's exchange puzzle, designed by Stewart Coffin.
This puzzle has an interesting story for me. When I had been talking to Martin (Gardner) before the summer, he was telling me about a puzzle Jerry had sent him. Martin said it was very difficult and he had spent way too much time trying to figure out the puzzle, and that it was designed by Stewart Coffin. And this was the puzzle Martin had been talking about!
I love Stewart Coffin puzzles, I have one in my collection that I bought from Stewart himself at IPP Boston last year. Stewart was actually selling off some of his puzzles from his collection (they did it lottery style) and so I had the opportunity to buy one from his collection. It is a beautiful wooden burr.
I should later include some photos from Boston. Unfortunately they are not digital, lost my digital camera right before IPP (long story), but I should digitize them and share.

So the next day, after the Puzzle Party, there was an Awards Banquet that evening. After dinner, there were some fun games. Here is one below. Brian Young (Mr. Puzzle) is on the left holding the Tangram that is to be made, he's an organizer. Chris Morgan (middle) and Jerry Slocum (right) plus one more contestant not in this photo are trying to make the Tangram. They had to wear the funny beach shirts and enormous sunglasses. This puzzle proved to be very difficult (even with Wei-Hwa shouting hints from the crowd, they didn't let Wei-Hwa participate because he always blows everyone away, he definitely did last year in Boston with a Soma competition). They couldn't figure it out, so Wei-Hwa got up and did it. It turned out, you weren't to make the hexagonal white shape, but the black background on the outside.So Wei-Hwa went on to the finals. And the other competitor in the finals is on the right, Laurie Brokenshire in the red floral shirt. Sue Young, in the hat, is also in the photo, she was an organizer.

So Laurie won! He was very fast. I should point out that Wei-Hwa was blindfolded and I think they stole one of his Tangram pieces! You should see Wei-Hwa solve puzzles. He is amazing, very smart, lightening fast and probably one of the reasons why he now works for Google!
I will add here that Laurie was very good to me at IPP. One of my favourite people that I met this year. I did a lecture on "Puzzles In Education" and he was very supportive and kind. He and his wife are wonderful people!

One of the Awards given at IPP is the Nob Yoshigahara Award for "Lifetime Achievements in Design, Craftsmanship and Popularizing Mechanical Puzzles". Last year in Boston was the first Nob Award and it was given to Stewart Coffin. This year Akio Kamei took home the honours. Jerry gave a wonderful presentation about all his life's work thus far that Mr. Kamei has done.

I love this award. Whenever the award is given, a new design is always to be made each year in resemblance to Rush Hour (the ThinkFun game that Nob designed.) Last year it was a car, and this year it was a bus! Lee Krasnow crafted this beautiful award. It actually has a full working, miniature puzzle workshop in the back of the bus, complete with miniature tools and everything! The puzzle is to take it apart (and put it back together!) I wonder if Mr. Kamei took it home and pulled it apart? :)
Frans de Vreugd was the main host for this year's IPP Down Under. He was given a gift at the Awards of a miniature Wendy! Below is Wendy life-size. We had her in our Kids Puzzle Room. She is an actual puzzle that comes apart!

So these are my main IPP photos! I have some excursion photos I will share next. At IPP there are excursions each day for interested people including for family members of IPPers. It a great chance to see some of the sights when you attend IPP. IPP travels around the world. It rotates from Asia, to Europe and then the United States. So its a great conference to go and see other parts of the world!

Loads of Photos from IPP Exchange

Here are my remaining pictures from the Puzzle Exchange. Those of you who collect puzzle will find these interesting. This is one astonishingly intelligent and fun group of people. I was telling my friend how my first IPP was so cool, but the second one was even cooler because I was able to see familar faces, people I had met and it was nice to see them again, to greet them and to be greeted by them!

Rob Hegge
Will Strijbos - I love these type of puzzles. Try to remove the yellow piece by sliding it into position to remove it through an opening on the bottom.
William Waite - William and I were partners at Dick Hess' wire workshop. William's puzzles looked great. He was really good at bending the wire in proportion and such. Mine however, not so great. William helped me a lot, he understood the mechanics so he could tell whether my puzzles would even work when I bent them poorly. It was fun and he was great!

Nancy Alliegro - Bits and Pieces - her wooden puzzle was beautiful. You can see the little birdie in the center.
Pavel Curtis - here's a link:

http://www.keltis.us/puzzles/

Peter Hajek
Peter Knoppers: http://ce.et.tudelft.nl/~knop/puzzlegallery/index.html



Rene Dawir and son


Jurg von Kanel - Jurg was amazing to me. We had some great conversations around puzzles in education. Jurg works for IBM Human Resources and was giving some great insight into the state of education from a business standpoint. What he shared really resonated with me and he helped me out in many ways at the conference. He also gave me one of his puzzles! Very generous! Thanks Jurg!



http://www.woodpuzzles.com/index.html

Kate Jones - Kate is an amazing woman. We share a strong belief that puzzles are an amazing educational tool. She is Andy Liu's favourite puzzle maker. I think he has her entire collection! She is very talented. Here's the link to her company Kadon Enterprises:

http://www.gamepuzzles.com/

Krill Grebnev - Krill won two Honourable Mentions in the IPP Design Competition this year!

Louis Toorenburg and his grandson Dylan - wonderful New Zealanders! Here's his link:

http://www.nzanity.co.nz/index.htm

Marcel Gillen



Bill Darrah
Dave Rossetti
Dick Hess
Frank Potts - http://www.pottypuzzles.com/index.htm

Itgel Tumen-Ulzii - Itgel is the first person I've met from Mongolia. Last year I bought a beautiful puzzle ring from him that his dad made. His puzzles are beautiful with there very own character. Here you can see his Kangaroo exchange puzzle he is holding.

Well this is all the photos from the Puzzle Exchange. There were so many other very talented puzzlers that I did not get a picture of! This is by no means a comprehensive photo collection. Maybe next year I'll have a photo of me as one of them, an exchanger! That'd be cool!