New Product Online
Explore Adams Cube, an exciting new puzzle just added to the ThinkFun collection!
Visit the new and improved Game Club homepage!
Contact the ThinkFun Education Department Tanya Thompson, Director of Education Programs
tthompson@thinkfun.com
Charlotte Fixler, Education and Curriculum Specialist
cfixler@thinkfun.com
Great prices on vintage ThinkFun puzzles.
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36 Cube Contest Extended
Bill Ritchie is CEO and co-founder of ThinkFun Inc.
| |  | | | Students work together and develop new strategies to solve the 36 Cube puzzle! Read this story. | Last November we introduced our new 36 Cube puzzle to the market, and along with it we announced a PUZZLE SOLVING CONTEST: The first 36 players to solve the 36 Cube by our Dec. 31 deadline would receive a prize of a ThinkFun Classroom Game Set with one string attached — the winner had to donate their prize to the school of his/her choice. Our goal was to use this contest to draw attention to how ThinkFun games can be used in schools to enrich the curriculum and teach problem solving skills.
The 36 Cube is a really hard puzzle... our challenge went out to the world’s best puzzle solvers, and we crossed our fingers that they would think that the puzzle was worthy. The great news is that it worked! By December 31st, 19 people had successfully solved the puzzle... and many more wrote to us to tell us the puzzle was impossible!
We were thrilled when a number of teachers were inspired by the contest, and they and their students got to work to solve the puzzle so they could win a ThinkFun Game Set for their school! It has been so exciting to hear stories of inspired students organizing themselves into groups, developing their own systematic approach to solving the puzzle, and entire classrooms rallying together and persevering to solve the challenge ... very impressive. We also learned of several students who solved the puzzle on their own!
So what makes the 36 Cube puzzle so interesting? We believe the reason is that the challenge it presents is such a great example of problem solving. Really smart puzzle experts think the puzzle should be easy because they can write a computer program to test every possible combination and pop out all the solutions. But when they try this, the computer can’t find any solutions. When they look further, some discover that the idea of this puzzle was first proposed by the famous 18th century mathematician, Leonhard Euler, as the 36 Officer Problem. Euler also thought the puzzle was impossible to solve!
Our puzzle is special because it actually can be solved... not what these smart puzzlers expected to find! Those who wrote to say "This can’t be solved!" stuck with their initial assumptions and didn’t look further, while our contest winners all came to this realization and then studied the puzzle more closely to look for new clues. These winners were the better problem solvers, as they questioned their own assumptions and looked outside the box. A spirit of inquiry, willingness to take risks, and persevering attitude are exactly the kinds of behaviors we aim to encourage in budding problem solvers through our classroom programs!
More and more solvers are sending us their solved puzzle pictures every day, and the excitement keeps building. Since only 19 of the 36 Game Club Sets were given out as prizes, we’ve decided to keep the puzzle party going and have extended the contest date until April 1. All participants who submit proof of their solved puzzle by April 1st will be entered in a draw, and once the contest ends, we will draw 17 names from among all the winners!
Want to learn more about the 36 Cube and our contest? Visit our contest page to get more information — I hope you’ll consider getting your own students involved!
Host a ThinkFun Game Night Fundraiser!
Charlotte Fixler is the Education and Curriculum Specialist at ThinkFun Inc.
 | | | ThinkFun Game Nights bring families together. | | Would you be interested in using ThinkFun games to raise money for your school? We are looking for testers in our ThinkFun newsletter community who would be interested in this new idea. ThinkFun Game Night is a new fundraising program we are developing to raise much-needed funds for schools in these difficult economic times!
What is a ThinkFun Game Night? Game Nights are events where families come together to learn and play ThinkFun games. These events are wonderful opportunities for families to explore alternatives to video games and discover new mind-challenging games to incorporate into their home collections! At a Game Night, parents place orders for ThinkFun games, and here's where the fundraising comes in. While families pay retail prices, only 60% of the sale price goes to ThinkFun, resulting in a profit of 40% less shipping that goes directly to the school!
| |  | | | Families donate games on the Giving Tree during a ThinkFun Game Night. | In addition to raising funds through game sales, schools can use the ThinkFun Giving Tree idea either as part of a Game Night or as a separate fundraising opportunity. The Giving Tree can be used in a variety of different ways, including families purchasing "apples" to decorate the branches and teachers posting classroom game donation requests on apples which families can purchase.
While schools are free to use their Game Night profits however they choose, ThinkFun extends a fantastic 40% discount on any games the school orders using funds raised! With ThinkFun Game Nights, everyone wins!
The Game Night program is very much a work-in-progress. Thus far, we have had a number of schools test this fundraising model, and the results have been fantastic! We believe we're very close to being able to launch this nationally. If you are interested being a Game Night tester and are able to host a ThinkFun Game Night before the end of this school year, please contact me for more information!
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