The Rubik's Cube Cookbook

It has been some time since my last blog post; I've been spending the past few months deeply ensconced in the student teaching engagements that make up the very last part of the work that I have to do in order to earn my elementary and secondary teaching credentials from the State of Virginia through the FAST TRAIN program.

But in the midst of all the lesson planning and delivery, I took some time out to write up a 30-page manual on how to solve a Rubik's cube. My wife, Lora, and I have been sponsoring a weekly after school activity entitled, "Math Games, Puzzles, and Fun" (for students Grades 2 through 4), and we promised the students that we would do a special focus on the Rubik's Cube. Not finding a clear, concise, and age-appropriate set of Rubik's Cube instructions on the Internet, I undertook to write my own after teaching myself how to solve the Cube by watching some very good YouTube videos (which are blocked here in China).

So, here is the fruit of my labors:

The Rubik's Cube Cookbook, version 1.0

It may still not be age-appropriate for the youngest kids that we were teaching (second graders), but it did serve as a useful guide to me as I talked some of them through the various algorithms for solving the Cube. It was slow-going for a few weeks, but two of the second-graders I was working with finally completed solving the Cube last Tuesday (April 27).

If the "Cookbook" might be of use to you, please feel free to download it for yourself or your students!!