Why will a student spend an hour solving a puzzle voluntarily, but resist spending five minutes on a worksheet?
This question has fascinated me throughout my two decades teaching physics and mathematics. The challenge in STEM education is not simply explaining concepts. We have developed countless ways to present information. The deeper challenge is creating experiences where students become curious enough to wrestle with ideas themselves.
The people who love STEM usually do not love it because they memorized formulas or followed procedures. They love it because of the ideas: the wonder of discovering how the universe works, the satisfaction of finding patterns, and the challenge of solving problems that initially seem impossible.
One of the most powerful ways to create that experience is through puzzles.
A good puzzle creates a different relationship with difficulty. When students encounter a traditional exercise and get stuck, they often conclude that they do not know how to solve it. But when students encounter a well-designed puzzle, being stuck becomes part of the process. An unsuccessful attempt is not simply wrong, it is information. It narrows possibilities, reveals patterns, and helps students build a better understanding of the problem.
This is very close to the way scientists and mathematicians actually work.
Over the past several years, I have explored what makes mathematical puzzles genuinely engaging. This last year, as part of that exploration, I designed and programmed six online math puzzles using GameMaker Studio and published them at mosaic-paths.com. Each puzzle focuses on a different mathematical idea, but the goal is not simply to practice a skill. The goal is to encourage different forms of mathematical reasoning.
For example, in Venn Diagrams with Unnecessary Lava, students work with multiplication, factors, and Venn diagrams. Those concepts are important, but they are only part of what students are learning. To solve the puzzle, students must form hypotheses, test their ideas, observe the results, and revise their thinking.
They are practicing the habits of scientific inquiry.
They also learn that mistakes are valuable.
To make progress, students have to become comfortable making bold attempts and occasionally being wrong. Each mistake provides information. The unsuccessful attempts are not failures; they are steps toward understanding.
Creating these puzzles has also changed the way I think about educational design. The first version of an activity is rarely the best version.
When I create a puzzle, there are always assumptions built into the design. Sometimes I believe something will be obvious to students, only to discover that it creates confusion. Other times, I expect students to struggle with an idea, only to watch them solve it immediately in a way I never anticipated.
Those moments are some of the most valuable parts of the process.
Student interactions provide the feedback needed to improve the experience. Each iteration is an opportunity to make the puzzle clearer, more engaging, and more intellectually rewarding.
This process has many similarities to scientific investigation itself: propose an idea, test it, examine the results, and refine the model.
This is one reason I am excited about the possibilities of immersive STEM learning. Technologies such as virtual reality are not valuable simply because they are new or visually impressive. Their real potential is that they can create environments where students explore, experiment, build models, and develop understanding through experience.
The future of STEM education will not come only from better explanations. It will come from creating better experiences—experiences where students are invited to be curious, where mistakes become information, and where solving problems becomes something they genuinely want to do.
That is the kind of STEM learning environment I have been working toward creating.
(Full Disclosure: So I spent this morning writing up a cover letter. There was a lot of nice develpment of ideas that should be in this blog. And since I don't have a lot of time, I asked ChatGPT to make small changes to covert the cover letter to a blog post . So... these are mostly my words. And I approve this message, so to speak.)
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