The United States of America is a large and diverse country; nevertheless, high schools have a lot in common across the nation. In particular, mathematics teaching in American high schools, while not stereotyped, has some accepted norms which would be seen as unusual here in Australia. In order for the Australians to learn from the Americans, as…

The activity "First One Home" in the Shell Centre's "Problems with Patterns and Numbers" Blue Box gives rise to a number of interesting patterns for those looking beyond the basic solution given in the book. The game is for two players, each taking turn and turn about to move a single counter on the grid down and/or to the left until one or the…