Brooklyn Friends School -> The Amazing Race

by Jeffrey Stanley

The battle of the fast food restaurants.

This famous burger chain is not doing well. When they opened in 2002 they had an average of 145 customers a day. Unfortunately, due to new stores that open in the area, the number of customers have been decreasing by 5% each year. How many customers a day are they expecting to have today?

What’s in my future?

Your heart is broken, so you look to Susie the Psychic for advice. If you visit Susie once a week until you graduate from high school, how much will you have to pay her?

Are you going to win the lottery?

Susie the Psychic gives you numbers to play. If you win the Mega Millions, how much do you actually get? Use this information from the Mega Millions website to figure out how much you would get per year if you won the jackpot this week and chose the annuity option: “Annuity option: Provides annual payments over a 26-year period. For every $1,000,000 in the jackpot, you will receive approximately $38,500 per year before taxes." After you figure out how much you will receive per year, you have to remember to pay 50% of it in taxes.

On Wednesday, September 21, the BFS seventh grade and their advisors divided into groups and participated in a far-flung scavenger hunt across the neighborhood, and even in midtown Manhattan. Organized by the always innovative Middle & Upper School Math Chair Fanny Sosenke, many of the scavenger hunt clues were mathematical, but there were history (Head of School Larry Weiss served as the hunt's "history consultant"), science, and writing assignments as well.

"This was both a bonding event for the 7^th grade, and a fun and engaging way to practice real-life problem solving," explained Fanny. "We had a picnic lunch at MetroTech Plaza at the end of the hunt."

The scavenger hunt was originally a math activity that Fanny used to do with her students in Indiana. The goal was to have kids utilize math in real-life contexts that were also fun. When she and her Middle School faculty cohorts were looking for team-building activities for the 7^th grade, she dusted off the scavenger hunt concept and made it Brooklyn-centric. "It would serve the bonding purpose, have some academics mixed in, and it wouldn't cost the school anything," she said candidly.

Middle & Upper School Math teacher Karima Hassan and Middle School Science teacher Kevin Cooney took a field trip with Fanny during the week before classes started. They composed the questions together.

Some of the questions seem easy at a glance, but most required some serious thought, creativity and number crunching, not to mention a lot of frenzied traveling, all while huddled in a group on a busy street. To add to the pressure, students had a ticking clock—only two hours were allowed to complete all 16 questions.

At first the teachers intended to declare a winning team and present a prize. "We originally thought we'd need that to motivate the kids," said Fanny, "but we didn't."

The Questions

1. Are you open?

Both of these banks have posted the hours that they are open each week. Use that information to answer the following questions:

a) Which bank offers more lobby hours to their customers in a given week? How many more?
b) What percent of the week is the Bank of America lobby open?
c) What percent of the week is the Capital One Bank lobby open?

2. The battle of the fast food restaurants.

You pick up lunch from the salad bar at the Hero Shop. How much would you pay if you serve yourself 1.75 pounds? Do not forget to add the tax and a tip!

What are the eight most common food allergies? (list them in Spanish for extra credit)

4. What’s in my future?

Your heart is broken, so you look to Susie the Psychic for advice. If you visit Susie once a week until you graduate from high school, how much will you have to pay her?

5. Trophy World.

How many days passed between the day Donna Farrell was given the Ruth Moskowitz Award and the day Albert DiMeglio received the Civil Service Award?

6. Help me!

Use the map in front of the New York City Transit Authority. Imagine you are standing at 28 St. Francis College. Someone comes to you and tells you that he’s been robbed. You want to send him to the 84^th precinct police station. Give the person accurate directions on how to get there. Make sure you give exact number of blocks and explain which way they should turn.

7. Schermerhorn Meeting House.

a) When did William Penn write Some Fruits of Solitude?

b) Write a poem with your group that starts with the same 2 first words of William Penn’s poem

c) What is the one thing you are not allowed to do in the little yard in front of the Meeting House?

8. What year was the stone on the corner of the Central Court Building set by the President of the Borough of Brooklyn?

9. A bike or a car?

A teacher at BFS is trying to decide whether to ride a bike to school or drive a car. She can’t park her bike at BFS. She goes to Edison Park Fast and looks at the monthly rates. How much money would she save over a 10-year period if she parks her bike instead of her car at the Edison Park Fast? Remember, she is only doing this during the school year.

10. BFS Family Center.

When you enter the Family Center, introduce yourselves politely to Valerie who will be sitting behind the front desk. She might help you answer these questions if you ask nicely.

a) What kind of fish are in the tank all the way to your left?

b) Why does the window have two plates of glass?

c) Find out how many teachers work there and how many students are enrolled, then find the student/teacher ratio for the Family Center.

d) The front desk when you enter the Family Center has an angled base. Use your protractor find the measure of the angle where the two pieces of wood are connected.

e) Classify the angle.

f) Look at the banner in front of the Family Center. Explain why they chose red, yellow and blue. Extra credit: name the 3 colors in French.

11. Going to the Doctor.

At 3:30pm I have a doctor’s appointment that is a 4-minute walk away from the 34^th Street-Herald Square subway stop in Manhattan. You are standing in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn, which is a 3-minute walk from my house. I usually have to wait 4 minutes for the train and it takes me 5 minutes to transfer AND wait for the next train. It takes about 3 minutes to get from one stop to the next. What subway line/s do I have to take, and what time should I leave my house if I want to arrive 15 minutes early for my appointment. Be specific, show the transfer point/s and show your work.

12. Too Many Stars!

Line up in front of the 99 Cent City Store. When your teacher says "go," turn around and estimate the number of stars in the Macy’s wall behind you. Your group's answer to this problem is to be the average of the estimates of all group members.

13. Are you going to win the lottery?

You leave school at 3:30pm. You hang out with your friends for 15 minutes. You then go and get a slice of pizza (another 10 minutes). Finally, you remember to go into the Brooklyn Macy’s to run an errand for your mom (another 25 minutes). You now need to take the B38 bus in front of Macy’s to go home. Check the timetable in front of the bus stop. At what time are you going to take the bus?

15. Shall I get the platter?

Your favorite breakfast is the two eggs and bacon sandwich from Americas Food Court. You reward yourself for a job well done at school by eating one every Friday morning. How much would you save over the course of the school year if you order the regular size versus the platter size?

16. History Consultant.

a) Why are several places in our neighborhood named after Fulton (Fulton Street, Fulton Landing)? Who was he and what's his connection with Brooklyn?

b) How many years has the Brooklyn Bridge been open?

c) In Metrotech Plaza there is a large old-fashioned building with big white columns at the top of some stairs. What's it used for now? How was it used in the past?

d) Down by the river at Fulton Landing, is a rock on which a famous person, it is said, watched a famous event. Who was he and what was the event? (hint: It had nothing to do with Fulton!)

e) On what date was the first free public school in Brooklyn opened?

17. Evaluation and suggestions.

a) Which was your favorite problem?

b) Your least favorite?

c) Can you write a problem for us to add to next year's scavenger hunt?

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