THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180701
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
At 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, Granby High Principal Michael Caprio gave the order over the school intercom: ``At this time, all home rooms please go to your assigned spots to hug the school.''
Wait a second? Hug the school? What kind of new touchy-feely education technique is this?
``You hug your child, you hug your dog, so you can hug your school,'' Caprio explains.
For Granby's 1,400 or so students, though, it was a little more complicated than that.
First, they had a huge problem to solve: Exactly how many kids would it take to surround the school and give it a squeeze?
At Granby, with its irregular-shaped building obstructed by bushes and other obstacles, Pythagoras himself might break into a sweat trying to figure out the answer.
Math teachers at the school posed the question to their classes last month, a local spin on national math month. Students in every math class put their brains together, applying their knowledge of algebra, geometry and calculus to come up with a number.
``It's not your standard rectangle,'' math teacher Cathy Meador said. ``As teachers, we stepped back and let the students try to figure it out.''
Students, given a class period to solve the problem, had to use teamwork and ingenuity. It didn't hurt that teachers threw in a bonus: The class coming closest would eat free pizza.
``We took the tallest person and the shortest person and then got an average of their arm spans,'' said ninth-grader Maria Nagle, who is studying algebra. One class lined up students along a small section of the building and then extrapolated how many it would take to encircle the building's entire perimeter.
The answers given by each of the 60-plus math classes were recorded on a large graph. Most of the classes figured it would take 700 to 800 students to hug the building, but responses ranged from 633 to 3,109.
They were hustled out of the building to put their calculations to the test on Wednesday, as gray skies threatened to rain.
So what, exactly, did students learn?
``I think it's brought us together more,'' ninth-grader Laurence Smith said as students waited for the signal to clasp hands and stretch out around the building. ``It's helped us learn about math and about our school.''
Teachers linked the math problem with the schools' ``Community of Caring'' program, which attempts to create a positive atmosphere at the school by teaching kids to respect each other, said Lynette Corley, math department chairman at Granby.
After all, while math seems so impersonal, who can resist a hug? Teachers wore buttons that said, ``Have You Hugged Your School Lately?'' and ``Granby Family.''
So, how many students does it take to cuddle up to the school? According to a count compiled by teachers, 949 students are needed. A combination 10th- and 11th-grade statistics class won, coming within 19 students of the answer. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
The problem: How many students does it take to surround and hug
Granby High School?
Solutions: One ninth-grade algebra class' solution involved
averaging the arm spans of the tallest and shortest class members.
Another class lined up students along a small section of the
building and then extrapolated how many it would take to encircle
the building's entire perimeter.
The answer: Responses ranged from 633 to 3,109, but the correct
answer was 949 students.
by CNB