RUBIK’S LESSONS

To help encourage her students to want to learn, Michelle Brewster teaches them how to solve a Rubik’s cube. It’s been such a successful teaching tool, the Dodges Ferry Primary School teacher says cubes could benefit all classrooms.

The confidence boost her Year 6 students get from solving a 3x3 cube makes them much more open to other types of learning, she says.

“When they realise they can solve the cube if they just break it down into the simple steps and focus on one step at a time, cubing actually gives them the confidence to achieve other learning goals,” Brewster says.

“So when it comes to challenges like decimals and fractions, I can say ‘let’s break it down and solve it one step at a time’.”

Brewster says you don’t need a maths brain to solve a cube, but patience definitely helps. She picked up a cube a year after her son, 14-year-old Jode, started cubing three years ago.

In July they both competed in the world speed cubing championships in Melbourne.

Despite her nerves Brewster was thrilled to slash 12 seconds off her best competition time for 3x3 cube, completing it in 48.05 seconds.

Meanwhile, Jode is now ranked eighth in Australia, with an average of 8.08 seconds.

Last year, when Brewster introduced the cube into her classroom of 35 11-year-olds, it took 17 weeks before everyone could solve it.

So far this year, her students are six weeks into cubing and most of them have mastered it.

She tries to squeeze in cube class practise time twice a week so the students can work through the steps they are up to.

“Even my students who are slow to warm to cubing end up picking one up after their curiosity grows over time, and they see their peers solve it,” she says. “And if I can learn it, anyone can.”