About

The Puzzle Café invites festival go-ers to choose from a menu of puzzles, brain teasers, craft activities and rule-based artwork creation. It’s a drop-in space where you can wander in for a minute, or get caught up in the puzzles and stay for hours!

You might choose just a small entrée, such as a simple tangram puzzle or Mobius strip construction, or if you’ve really got an appetite there are more substantial puzzles from the mains section of the menu such as the Monty Hall problem, the Rascally Rabbit dilemma, or a logic game. A small selection of delicious desserts are sometimes available for those who just want something sweet and silly.

In addition to the menu of options, we run special focus sessions such as string art, hexaflexagon construction (where you create a foldable object that’s kindof like the fidget spinner of the topology world) or “Puzzles, Pi, and Chai” where we sit around drinking chai and doing puzzles related to circles.

FAQ

What sort of puzzles are at the puzzle cafe?

We focus on brain teasers, logic puzzles, problem-solving puzzles. We include some well-known classics like the Monty Hall problem, Simpson’s paradox, the Wason Card Test, Towers of Hanoi etc. (if you don’t know what any of those are, don’t worry!), but we also have some more obscure to more obscure and original puzzles. And we don’t just do puzzles! We have a bunch of creative activities like rule-based artwork and short craft projects.

Is this just thinly-veiled mathematics?

Weeeeellllllll…… yes. Yes it is. BUT we pride ourselves on curating a selection of puzzles so that every person can find something enjoyable and interesting for them, regardless of their level of experience or interest in maths.

Why don’t you call it the Maths Cafe?

We could, but we want the focus to be on play and fun. And sometimes people are scared off by the word ‘maths’, and might not think it’s for them. Maths is beautiful and creative and expansive and mind-blowing. But we know that’s not most people’s experience of maths. Maths has a PR problem, and we want to change that.

Facilitators

Kate Barnard is a science communicator, educator, and manager with over 15 years’ experience in scientific and cultural institutions. Kate has brought her particular brand of playful joy to Questacon, CSIRO, PPIPTEK - the Science and Technology Centre of Indonesia, the Bendigo Discovery Centre, Scienceworks, and the Melbourne Planetarium. She currently works with Astronomy Australia Limited at the intersection of astronomy research, industry, and government.

Lizzie Silver is a data scientist with a background in Philosophy of Science (among other things). She co-organises two community events: the Melbourne chapter of Puzzled Pint, and the Melbourne Machine Learning and AI Meetup. She loves bringing people together to share a love of puzzles and learning.

Rosa Zwier is interested in creativity, maths and education, and especially places where those things meet. She likes to create engaging experiences, which she does in her work in the education team at Scienceworks, and in her personal work as an independent artist.