HOP Puzzle Club.
It started with people who liked paper puzzles. Now it’s a schoolwide event, a bit of friendly competition and a reason to put different kinds of thinkers around one table.
there’s probably another way in
from paper puzzles to Puzzle Day
I started HOP Puzzle Club after discovering that other students liked puzzling too. Once we had school approval, a handful of paper puzzles grew into an annual schoolwide event around Harvard CS50x Puzzle Day. You don’t need to know how to code to take part.
Teams bring their own mix of strengths, and that’s what makes it fun. Someone notices a pattern, someone else catches a wordplay clue, and suddenly a problem that looked impossible starts moving.
a little competition for a good cause
Puzzle Day became a campus tradition, with the winning team choosing the charity supported by our fundraising. One event supported Ukraine Children’s Action Project.
Planning it taught me to make space for ideas I wouldn’t have come up with myself. Watching someone else finally solve a puzzle is a pretty good payoff for all the organizing.
still scribbling new clues
I’m working on our own creative puzzles and thinking about how to bring neighboring schools into the event. The next packet is still a work in progress.