Mathster Mind

A Maths Starter of The Day

The teacher thinks of a four digit number made up of digits in the range 1 to 4. Each student guesses what the four digit number might be. The teacher gives one tick for each digit the student has in the right place. What number is the teacher thinking of?

Isaac : 3411Devin : 3122
Jeremiah : 4443Cole : 2144
Brayden : 3113Wyatt : 3213
Chase : 3434Steven : 2114
Timothy : 1323Dominic : 4231
Sebastian : 4114Xavier : 3224
Blake : 3314Jesse : 1423
Sean : 4314Seth : 3234
Antonio : 4444Richard : 3131
Miquel : 1111Colin : 1132

 

 

Note for Teacher: All of the students guesses above will probably not fit on the screen at the same time. You may wish to keep the lower guesses hidden so as not to make the activity too easy.

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Keywords: Starter | Logic | Puzzles

  • Mr James, Hertfordshire
  • Tuesday, May 04, 2010
  • "1441, Brilliant starter! Really gets them to use their logical side!"
  • N Cox, Ipswich
  • Thursday, May 20, 2010
  • "Great number idea based on the Mastermind game. I have also used a developed version of this with pupils where they get a dot if they have a right digit in the wrong place and a star for the right digit in the right place. They play this in pairs as a starter."
  • SFBS 4M 2010, Seoul
  • Thursday, May 27, 2010
  • "We think it's 1432. Where's the answer page?"
  • Mrs. Smith, Florida
  • Tuesday, March 22, 2011
  • "My student's think it is 2444. What is the answer?"
  • Mrs. Smith, Florida
  • Tuesday, March 22, 2011
  • "Ah...nevermind. It changes each time the page is reloaded."

    •  

  • Anna Chapman, St Leonards East Sussex
  • Friday, May 27, 2011
  • "My 10-11 year olds found this hard because they don't have experience of the original game. Tips for a strategy might have helped."
  • Miss. Jane Smith, New Jersy
  • Friday, May 27, 2011
  • "It was good but needed to be easier,never mind my class did'nt get it..... again..."
  • Steve Scanlon, Adult Numeracy Tutor
  • Monday, May 30, 2011
  • "Interesting the references to the 'original game'. My maths teacher taught me this game at the end of the 1960s as "Cows and Bulls". A Cow was the right number in the wrong place and a Bull was the right number in the right place (I know, sexist language). This was several years before "Mastermind"."
  • Mrs G, NZ
  • Thursday, September 01, 2011
  • "My classes love Mathstermind and many students ask for it every day. Awesome thanks!! (just press f5 for a new one and work it out before they do - using the numbers with NO ticks is easiest!)."

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
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Didn't really capture the interest of the students
Not for me! I wouldn't use this type of activity.

This starter has scored a mean of 3.7 out of 5 based on 76 votes.

 

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Answers

1121

Change Numbers:

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click a button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers. There is a choice of three levels; easy, medium and hard.

Advanced:

Finding a unique solution may not be possible.

 
Computer Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do you have "Laptops in Lessons"?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC or share a desktop PC, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Laptop

Here is the URL which will take them to a concise version of this page.

Transum.org/go/?Start=May27

Here is the URL which will take them to a student activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=Frustration