News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove Luther J. Schilling William E. Young William J. Butler
Hadley Middle Homer Jr. High
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
For Immediate Release:
Feb. 27, 2017
Who Killed Roger Rabbit?
Homer Junior High 8th graders are hot on the case
Someone killed Roger Rabbit over the weekend and it’s up to Homer Junior High School’s eighth-grade math students to figure it out using the Pythagorean Theorem.
“There are 22 suspects,” math teacher Kendra Michalik told her students as they gathered around the “crime scene” — the outline of Robert Rabbit’s body.
“You are required to take two measurements,” she continued. “These measurements will contain two of the three parts of a triangle — two legs and a hypotenuse. You will be required to calculate the missing piece of the triangle using the Pythagorean Theorem.”
Students worked in pairs, measuring the distance between Robert Rabbit’s outline and five of the 22 “suspects” hidden among paper trees on the classroom walls.
The objective was for students to apply what they have learned in class and demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the theory behind the Pythagorean Theorem.
Every eighth-grade math class participated in the exercise, rotating in and out of the “crime scene” throughout the week.
Students were given a packet of information to guide their investigation. Each packet was different so that each group came up with a different assassin.
Suspects included Captain Jack Sparrow, Donald Duck, Cruella DeVille and Winnie the Pooh. Not even Cinderella, Thumper or Tramp were exempt from consideration.
It was a real whodunit with the answer hidden among clues of distances.
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