Finding a Formula

This resource contains three excel programs; ‘Chessboard’, ‘Chess Cube’ and ‘Painted Cube, each containing a series of interactive spreadsheets designed to explore situations requiring students to find a formula.

Chessboard is designed for the teacher to lead students through a strategy for solving the classic problem of how many squares are there on a chessboard. The problem is set up then subsequent spreadsheets build up, step by step, the number of 1x1 squares, 2x2 squares etc. on different sized grids. A summary shows that the pattern created is the sum of the first and consecutive square numbers. The final spreadsheets contain further problems for students to explore.

Chess Cube extends the chess square problem to pose the problem of how many cubes are there in a 8x8x8 cube. The final spreadsheets contain further problems for students to explore.

Painted Cube is designed for the teacher to lead students through a strategy for solving the classic painted cube problem. The problem is set up then subsequent spreadsheets build up a step by step approach to how the problem can be solved. Summary sheets show how patterns are created, formulae derived and predictions made. The final spreadsheets contain further problems for students to explore.

Note:

This program was designed to be viewed on a screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768. Users may have to adjust the resolution of their screen for the pages to display as was originally intended. The program uses macros which need to be enabled on a machine