Sagging Pants

My students have been helping out Carnegie Learning, piloting some of the new problems slated for the middle school Cognitive Tutor. We’re kind of disappointed that the software program is still in the old format, but my students and I are always happy to help out in any way we can.

You know something is up when all of a sudden you hear students shuffling, followed by giggles and fits of laughter. I look up and one girl has several of her friends surrounding her laptop.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

Yeah, right. I go over to the crowd to find out for myself.

“Look, Mrs. Park! Can you believe they would put this kind of problem on Cognitive Tutor?”

I smile as I read about Bob’s sagging pants, the distance representing a negative quantity. The problem asks how far down Bob’s pants will be sagging after so many minutes. Carnegie Learning hit this one right on the dot. My students are talking about this for the rest of the day, warning the next class to look out for this problem.

Not quite children and yet not full-pledge teenagers. Kids this age still enjoy watching Finding Nemo and squirm at kissing scenes in movies.

You’ve got to love middle school humor.