Comparison of Sudoku Solving Skills of Preschool Children Enrolled in the Montessori Approach and the National Education Programs Yıldız Güven1, Cihat Gültekin1, A. Beyzanur Dedeoğlu1

According to Johnson-Laird (2010), sudoku, a mind game, is based on a pure deduction and reasoning processes. This study analyzed sudoku solving skills of preschool children and to ascertain whether there was a difference between children who were educated according to the Ministry of Education preschool education program and the Montessori approach. Sudoku skills of children were analyzed by gender, age, duration of preschool attendance, mother’s and father’s education level and previous experience of playing sudoku using a 12-question Sudoku Skills Measurement Tool developed for this research study.The study sample of the study consisted of 118 children (57 girls, 61 boys) aged between 54-77 months. The findings showed that there was no significant difference in sudoku skills by gender. However, sudoku skills varied with age (54-65 months and 66-77 months) in favor of older groups. Children's sudoku skills were more developed with an increase in education level of either parent. Children who had been in preschool for longer had higher sudoku scores. A previous experience of playing sudoku did not impact sudoku scores. Sudoku skills of children who were educated according to the Montessori program were more developed compared to those of children educated according to Ministry of National Education program

Sudoku solver based on human strategies an application in VBA

Mestrado Bolonha em Métodos Quantitativos para a Decisão Económica e EmpresariaO Sudoku é um puzzle popularmente conhecido, com aplicações em diversas áreas que se estendem desde a Criptografia à Medicina. Por ser um problema NP-completo, a maior parte dos esforços para o resolver focam-se em heurísticas e não em métodos exatos. Exemplo destes últimos são as estratégias humanas. A proposta deste Trabalho Final de Mestrado (TFM) consiste no desenvolvimento de um Sudoku Solver, em VBA. O solver desenvolvido é um algoritmo de duas fases que incorpora estratégias humanas (Fase 1) e backtracking (Fase 2). A Fase 2 só é executada se, terminada a Fase 1, não for encontrada uma solução admissível. Foi conduzida uma experiência computacional para testar a performance do solver para puzzles 9×9 de três níveis de dificuldade: fácil, moderado e difícil. Das 230 instâncias testadas, aproximadamente 55% foram resolvidas. O tempo máximo de resolução foi de 6,813 segundos, o tempo mínimo foi de 0,309 e a média do tempo total foi de 2,525 segundos.Sudoku is a popular puzzle, with applications in several areas ranging from Cryptography to Medicine. Because it is an NP-complete problem, most efforts to solve it focus on heuristics and not on exact methods. Examples of the latter are human strategies. The proposal of this Master’s Final Work (MFW) is the development of a Sudoku Solver, in VBA. The developed solver is a two-phase algorithm that incorporates human strategies (Phase 1) and a backtracking procedure (Phase 2). Phase 2 is only executed if a feasible solution has not been found after Phase 1 ends. It was conducted a computational experience to test the solver performance for 9×9 puzzles with three difficulty levels: easy, moderate, and hard. Among the 230 instances tested, approximately 55% were solved. The maximum running time was 6.813 seconds, the minimum time was 0.309, and the average total time was 2.525 seconds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio