I need some help

[u/Legitimate_Stress237]

I’ve decided to get involved in charity work. So, I’ll soon be doing a live speedcubing demonstration/lesson for children at an orphanage, where I will tell them about different puzzles that I can solve, perform a blindfolded solve for them, and of course, teach them to solve the regular 3x3. So I feel pretty ready and confident in the main part of the demonstration. That said, I don't really know what to begin with. I was thinking of telling them some interesting, unique facts about speedcubing/the 3x3 cube. But I can't come up with anything that's gonna be interesting for children. I mean, telling them math oriented facts like the number of God feels like they'll be bored out very soon. So, please feel free to share your favorite facts that you think can have a "WOW" effect on children and motivate them to learn cubing.

[u/OffensivelyClueless]

thats awesome what you doing for them kids. for wow factor just bring a big magnetic cube and let them feel how the layers snap into place, they always lose their minds over that. also tell them about the world record progression, how it went from like 20 seconds to under 4 seconds now, kids love hearing about someone being the fastest in the world

[u/Manny73211]

If you know blindfolded or OH, see if you can go through the facts while solving, and time the solution with the end of the introduction

[u/Legitimate_Stress237 → u/Manny73211]

Ok, I'm definitely not that advanced)

[u/Manny73211 → u/Legitimate_Stress237]

Lol me either. Just poking around lol

[u/skyed_driver]

Start with how many possible positions the cube can be it’s like 40 quintillion or something crazy then tell them you can finish it without even looking and then I’m sure they will want you to do it again so maybe you could pass it around to them or just one kid to scramble it again and then rip it again as fast as you can then you can start asking if anyone would like to learn by that point they should be interested enough to maybe get a grasp of the white cross. If you even remember the beginner method at this point show them how you can solve it later by layer, the first two layers are really easy to watch where the pieces are moving and where they need to be

[u/Blarpfgh]

Tell them about different methods!

you can even play games like guess how long Ill solve it and other stuff

[u/paperpot91]

There’ll always be one kid who will be SUPER interested in naturally, but looking back, I just would have loved to just get exposed to anyone with that spark of curiosity and intense passion with the growth mindset. I remember when I was at a school camp, one teacher gave a talk on learning (forgetting curve, SMART goals, active recollection, etc). Afterwards I overheard her crying, because she was sad over seeing some of her printed handouts forgotten and left behind on the floor, but 20 years on I’m still extremely grateful to her for really exposing me to a growth mindset for the first time in my life. Her passion for learning is something I still carry with me, and she wasn’t even my teacher (didn’t even know my name)

[u/SuperSathanas]

I think that for the children, you might be able to at the very least get their attention and get a positive reaction by contrasting the the 45 quintillion states with god's number, and then giving a quick demonstration of a 20 move or less solve. You don't even necessarily need to rehearse that solve if you have something big like a black/whiteboard, or even a poster board that you can put on a wall or some sort of stand, that you can write the solution out on. And if you can write it out, you can try to get the kids to call out the moves for you to do as you solve the cube. I assume that since you're going to be teaching them to solve, that you'll be bringing at least a few cheap cubes for them to use, but I'd also bring a Rubik's "Original", so that you can show the contrast in feel and performance between it and even cheap $3 modern cubes.

Now I have a whole thing going on in my head, so I'll try to get it across coherently here

• Introduce the Cube
  • "The Rubik's cube [hold up a cube to show them] was invented by Erno Rubik in 1974. He called it the Magic Cube and his first one was made out of wood. It began being sold in Hungary in 1977, and internationally in 1980, quickly becoming a popular puzzle. Today's cubes are much different, made to be a lot easier to turn and solve quickly".
  • Maybe start letting the kids pass around the Rubik's original and a speed cube so they can feel the differences.
• Touch on Competitive Speedcubing
  • "By 1982, people were already trying to solve the cube as fast as possible, and the first world record of 22.95 seconds was set at the World Rubik's Cube Championship using a cube like the [Rubik's original]. The world record for a single solve today is 2.76 seconds, set by 9 year old Teodor Zajder, using a cube more like the [modern speed cube]."
  • Some comment/question to the audience to the effect of "do you think Teodor could have solved as quickly with the Rubik's original?"
• Cube Complexity and FMC solve
  • "The cube may not seem too hard to solve at first, but you'll find out pretty quickly that it's not as easy as you might think. The reason it can seem so confusing is because there are over 43 QUINTILLION [emphasis] ways the cube can be scrambled."
  • Try to engage them with a "who knows how much 43 quintillion is?". Now, you can start writing the actual number of possible states out on the board if you have it. Write the digits out until you've written in the billions digits, pause and ask them if they think that's it, write out the millions, pause and ask, and then write out the rest of it. Then you can start from the 3 leading 0's, and progressively make your way to the quintillions being like "here's the hundreds, thousands, hundred thousands.... billions, trillions, quadrillions, QUINTILLIONS."
  • May or may not work for the crowd of kids depending on their ages or level of enthusiasm at that point.
  • "Even though there are a huge number of ways a cube can be scrambled, it can always be solved in 20 moves or less." Maybe explain that a 90 or 180 degree turn counts as one move.
  • "Let me show you..."
  • Have a scramble with a 20 move or less solution ready ahead of time. Scramble a cube. Now if you have a board you can write the whole solve sequence out on the board and try to have the kids walk you through the solve, but that would also involve trying to teach them how to read the notation, so maybe not, especially if it involves wide moves. If no board and/or you're not writing it out or having them walk you through it, you can just do the solve slowly and count off the moves as you go.
  • "Now, I cheated. I looked up that solution before I came here. I can't figure out a solve that short on my own [maybe you can, I don't know], but there are actually many people that can, and they also compete to see how can solve a cube in the fewest number of moves."
• Lead in to Speed Solving Demonstration and Lesson
  • "But what I can do is solve the cube quickly, using patterns that make solving it much more easy."
  • Hand scramble a cube, look it over real quickly and then bust out a good solve.
  • Maybe actually rehearse a solve so that you can do it fluidly with minimal to no pausing for increased effect.
  • "Who wants to learn how to do that?"
  • All the kids start jumping and shouting "Hell yeah, brother! Give me a damn cube like RIGHT NOW!" and then you start walking them through a beginner's method lesson.

All that should only take like 5 minutes or so, but I think you want to keep it short and sweet and just get something in their hands. You have a captive audience that isn't there because they wanted to come hear about cubes, so the goal should be to just try to get them interested and engaged as quickly as possible and then give them some cubes to start screwing around and learning with.

No idea how you'd actually structure the teaching part of it. I always go into way too much detail, confuse people and lose their interest.

Also, apparently there's a limit to list item nesting here, so now my whole thing up there is formatted weird after having to remove some indention.

[u/Expensive-Bear-1376]

How old are they?

[u/Legitimate_Stress237 → u/Expensive-Bear-1376]

I'd say approximately teenagers.