THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 22, 1995 TAG: 9505190025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Some questions cannot be answered: How high is up?
Some questions can be answered by only a select few: What is the capital of North Dakota?
The other day, Granby students answered a doozy of a question: How many students with outstretched arms linked would be needed to encircle irregularly shaped Granby High School in Norfolk?
As part of math month (and you thought May was merely May), math classes attempted to calculate the answer, employing algebra, geometry and even calculus. The answer was complicated by the fact students come in varying heights and arm-lengths.
Come this past Wednesday morning, the students were asked not just to encircle the school but to hug it.
The contest idea was brilliant.
(1) A classroom question was answered first by reasoning and then by an actual counting of students. Thus, math was made real. Every subject should be made real, whenever possible.
(2) Students got out of class - always a good idea, from students' perspective.
(3) The school got hugged. It's safe to say that not every student's heart was into hugging his or her school, but surely some of their hearts were. Schools need hugs, too. ``You hug your child, you hug your dog, so you can hug your school,'' said Michael Caprio, the school principal.
About 1,400 students attend Granby, and 949 of them were needed to encircle it. One class missed that number by only 19 and won free pizza. The capital of North Dakota is Bismarck. by CNB