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For younger learners

  • Early Years Foundation Stage

Being Resilient - Secondary Students

Being Resilient is part of our Developing Mathematical Habits of Mind collection.

Good thinkers are resilient. They don't give up easily, and are motivated to work hard and keep going when faced with challenges. They recognise that we all fail sometimes, and when this happens, they bounce back and try alternative approaches. Find out more in What Does it Feel Like to Do Maths, which includes a film of the mathematician Andrew Wiles talking about his personal experience of seeking a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. 

Want to become a more resilient mathematician?

These problems may require you to persevere when the solutions are not immediately obvious. Take a look, we hope you'll stick with them and feel a sense of achievement at the end!

You can browse through the Number, Algebra, Geometry or Statistics collections, or scroll down to see the full set of problems below.

Being Resilient - Number

Number problems that may require resilience.

Being Resilient - Algebra

Algebra problems that may require resilience.

Being Resilient - Geometry

Geometry problems that may require resilience.

Being Resilient - Statistics

Statistics problems that may require resilience.



Robot Monsters

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star

Use these head, body and leg pieces to make Robot Monsters which are different heights.

Inside Triangles

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star

How many different triangles can you draw on the dotty grid which each have one dot in the middle?

Find the Difference

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Place the numbers 1 to 6 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.

Mixed-up Socks

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Start with three pairs of socks. Now mix them up so that no mismatched pair is the same as another mismatched pair. Is there more than one way to do it?

Rolling That Cube

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

My dice has inky marks on each face. Can you find the route it has taken? What does each face look like?

Four Triangles Puzzle

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

Cut four triangles from a square as shown in the picture. How many different shapes can you make by fitting the four triangles back together?

Developing Students' Resilience

Age 5 to 18

Resources to accompany the Being Resilience collections.

How Many Times?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

On a digital 24 hour clock, at certain times, all the digits are consecutive. How many times like this are there between midnight and 7 a.m.?

Dicey Perimeter, Dicey Area

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

In this game for two players, you throw two dice and find the product. How many shapes can you draw on the grid which have that area or perimeter?

Nine-pin Triangles

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

How many different triangles can you make on a circular pegboard that has nine pegs?

Which Scripts?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

There are six numbers written in five different scripts. Can you sort out which is which?

Maze 100

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Can you go through this maze so that the numbers you pass add to exactly 100?

Reach 100

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Choose four different digits from 1-9 and put one in each box so that the resulting four two-digit numbers add to a total of 100.

Make 37

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Four bags contain a large number of 1s, 3s, 5s and 7s. Can you pick any ten numbers from the bags so that their total is 37?

Estimating Angles

Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

How good are you at estimating angles?

Got It

Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.

Number Lines in Disguise

Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Some of the numbers have fallen off Becky's number line. Can you figure out what they were?

Factor Lines

Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.

Factors and Multiples Game

Age 7 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star

A game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent?

American Billions

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...

Substitution Cipher

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

Find the frequency distribution for ordinary English, and use it to help you crack the code.

M, M and M

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

If you are given the mean, median and mode of five positive whole numbers, can you find the numbers?

Frogs

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

How many moves does it take to swap over some red and blue frogs? Do you have a method?

Factors and Multiples Puzzle

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

Using your knowledge of the properties of numbers, can you fill all the squares on the board?

Isosceles Triangles

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

Draw some isosceles triangles with an area of $9$cm$^2$ and a vertex at (20,20). If all the vertices must have whole number coordinates, how many is it possible to draw?

Elevenses

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

How many pairs of numbers can you find that add up to a multiple of 11? Do you notice anything interesting about your results?

Can You Make 100?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

How many ways can you find to put in operation signs (+, −, ×, ÷) to make 100?

Reflecting Squarely

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

In how many ways can you fit all three pieces together to make shapes with line symmetry?

Odds and Evens

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

Are these games fair? How can you tell?

Add to 200

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

By selecting digits for an addition grid, what targets can you make?

Number Daisy

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

Can you find six numbers to go in the Daisy from which you can make all the numbers from 1 to a number bigger than 25?

Forwards Add Backwards

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star

What happens when you add a three digit number to its reverse?

Overlaps

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Can you find ways to put numbers in the overlaps so the rings have equal totals?

Where Can We Visit?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Charlie and Abi put a counter on 42. They wondered if they could visit all the other numbers on their 1-100 board, moving the counter using just these two operations: x2 and -5. What do you think?

Tower of Hanoi

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.

Squares in Rectangles

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

A 2 by 3 rectangle contains 8 squares and a 3 by 4 rectangle contains 20 squares. What size rectangle(s) contain(s) exactly 100 squares? Can you find them all?

Cuboids

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Can you find a cuboid that has a surface area of exactly 100 square units. Is there more than one? Can you find them all?

Triangles to Tetrahedra

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Imagine you have an unlimited number of four types of triangle. How many different tetrahedra can you make?

Charlie's Delightful Machine

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star

Here is a machine with four coloured lights. Can you develop a strategy to work out the rules controlling each light?

Product Sudoku

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

The clues for this Sudoku are the product of the numbers in adjacent squares.

Funny Factorisation

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Using the digits 1 to 9, the number 4396 can be written as the product of two numbers. Can you find the factors?

Same Length

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Construct two equilateral triangles on a straight line. There are two lengths that look the same - can you prove it?

Wipeout

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Can you do a little mathematical detective work to figure out which number has been wiped out?

Nine Colours

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Can you use small coloured cubes to make a 3 by 3 by 3 cube so that each face of the bigger cube contains one of each colour?

Shopping Basket

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

The items in the shopping basket add and multiply to give the same amount. What could their prices be?

Two and Two

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

How many solutions can you find to this sum? Each of the different letters stands for a different number.

Last Biscuit

Age 11 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Can you find a strategy that ensures you get to take the last biscuit in this game?

A Little Light Thinking

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star

Here is a machine with four coloured lights. Can you make two lights switch on at once? Three lights? All four lights?

In a Box

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Chris and Jo put two red and four blue ribbons in a box. They each pick a ribbon from the box without looking. Jo wins if the two ribbons are the same colour. Is the game fair?

Partly Painted Cube

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Jo made a cube from some smaller cubes, painted some of the faces of the large cube, and then took it apart again. 45 small cubes had no paint on them at all. How many small cubes did Jo use?

Difference Sudoku

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Use the differences to find the solution to this Sudoku.

Latin Numbers

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Can you create a Latin Square from multiples of a six digit number?

Data Matching

Age 14 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star

Use your skill and judgement to match the sets of random data.

Kite in a Square

Age 14 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Can you make sense of the three methods to work out what fraction of the total area is shaded?

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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