How Many Squares in a Chessboard?

By Thomas Hammerlund -


I don't know what, but this math problem had my students hooked. I wish we didn't run out of time that day.

I got the idea for this while reading the book, The Elephant in the Classroom. It was great to see the working together and comparing answers. When I posed the question I had one student right away shout out, "64"! And after I told her there were many, many more than that, they went to work.

We got right to the point where I opened their eyes to how the squares can overlap  - until that point they were counting the squares as if they were bricks side-by-side.

It was interesting to watch them. They were more engaged than I expected.

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