A numbers game

BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

A local teacher is hoping her math puzzle book catches on with smart kids.

Bogusia Gierus, who teaches at Kuper Academy, with the help of her husband Alex, launched the Hexa-Trex puzzle book last year. "It's for people who like both puzzles and math," said Gierus, 32, a Beaconsfield mother of two young boys. "It starts at the Grade 4 or 5 levels and then it gets harder."

The object of each puzzle is to find the equation that leads through all the tiles.

Originally, she thought of making a board game using equations (sort of like Scrabble with numbers) but then figured there wasn't enough of a market for a math game. She is promoting her book, which sells for $5.95, through her website and some bookstores, such as Cleo and Chapters in Pointe Claire. Gierus is proud to have had her puzzles published a couple of times in Games Magazine.

She hopes the puzzle book will catch on with teachers who could use it as a fun learning exercise for their students. "It's a really good game for kids," she said, adding it could be given out as a prize to students excelling in science.

She is currently developing a word puzzle book, Spelloops, which has people unscramble letters to spell out words in tiles. "My goal is to make one new book every one or two years," Gierus said.

Examples of the spelling and math puzzles are available on her website (www.nucleuslearning.com).