SIMCC Games · Teacher guide
Logic Locks
Use row, column, and inequality clues to crack each grid.
- Trains
- Logical deduction · Inequalities: < and > · Each number once in a row and column
- Ages
- 9 to 14
- In class
- On your own. One device each. Choose First steps: six teaching locks, each one deduction. Then Bronze: 3 × 3 locks.
A ten-minute starter
- Show about 2 minDraw a 3 × 3 grid. Each row and column holds 1, 2 and 3 once. Put a < between two cells of a row: the left cell is smaller than the right. Ask which number can never go on the left.
- Play about 6 minStudents choose First steps and work through the six teaching locks. Fast finishers try Bronze.
- Talk about 2 minAsk a student to explain one step: a row with one gap, or a number that fits only one cell.
Questions to ask the class
- In a 3 × 3 lock, which number can never sit on the left of a <?Listen for: 3, the biggest.
- A row holds 2 and 3. What goes in the gap?Listen for: 1, the only number the row is missing.
- How can a number fit only one cell in a row?Listen for: Its column, or a clue, rules it out of every other cell in that row.
A common mistake
Reading a clue the wrong way round.
How to help: Ask them to read it aloud from left to right: < means the left cell is smaller. A hint first says where to look, then explains one step.
Assign it
On the coach dashboard, choose your class under Cohorts. In Assign practice, pick Logic Locks and the drill First steps or Open the lock, add a due date if you want one, then press Assign. Students find it on their Train page.
Set First steps for a new class, then Open the lock.
Results show on the dashboard by student and by game once the server has checked them.