Using Simplified Sudoku to Promote and Improve Pattern Discovery Skills Among School Children

Abstract

As part of promoting and improving pattern discovery skills among school children, a Sudoku puzzle can be used as example of a problem solving task. A simplified version of the puzzle will be used first to explain the aim and reinforce the rules of solving the puzzle. Three strategies—Strategy of ‘Obvious Missing Number’, Strategy of ‘Elimination’, and Strategy of ‘Either This or That’—will then be introduced and applied in solving a simplified Sudoku puzzle that is appropriate for children in grades 4 to 6.