Here's a math puzzler
from the active mind of Otis Reedy. See if you can figure it out. Write your
answer in your travel log, then click forward to the next page of the adventure.
(Answers can be found in the Curriculum Connections pages for teachers under
'Math Connections'.)
"OK, my fellow whizkids, only one in
twenty leafcutter ants is male. If this same ratio applied to your whole school,
how many boys and how many girls would you have in attendance? Of course,
to figure this out, you'll first have to find out the student population
of your school - which leads to my second puzzler: If all of the students
at your school were ants, how many total body parts would the school population
have including antennae, pincers, body segments, and legs. And finally, underground
leafcutter ant colonies can have 5 million residents. How many schools of
your school's population would you have to combine to make a school of
5 million students? If there were one teacher for every twenty students, how
many teachers would be in this school? Have fun figuring!"
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