COLUMBUS, Neb. — A suspicious "death" happened on campus, and a group of middle school students were on the case.
Armed with sharp minds and graphing calculators, the students were up to the task of finding out what exactly happened during the weeklong Central Honors Institute.
The annual camp invited high ability students going into seventh and eighth grades to participate in one of three tracks.
Each track had different themes and hands-on activities for students. The math track focused on forensic science. The other tracks included science and problem-solving.
Joshua Garcia and Alyssa Curry were among the students in the forensic science class. Recently they were trying to figure out if a woman named Barbara had died bungee jumping at an amusement park by accident or if she was murdered.
The students were presented with a mock scenario where they had to figure out if the bungee cord that Barbara was strapped to was too long. They did a series of experiments attaching rubber bands to Barbies and dropping the dolls from different heights.
They used mathematical equations and graphs to determine just how many rubber bands would be used to get Barbie closest to the ground by dropping the doll from the balcony of one of the buildings at the college.
Other tracks had activities like learning about flight using archery, water rockets and studying birds caught in nets on campus.
Teacher Lee Peterson-Brogie, of Wayne, said the camp gives students examples of how skills like math are used. The information collection can be a challenge for students to weed through.
"Real-life data doesn't always come out clean like it does in the textbook," Peterson-Brogie said.
But because the students chose to be part of the camp and have a passion for learning, they were excited to solve problems and learn new ways of coming up with answers.
The classes were taught by local and area teachers. The students came from schools across the state and were accepted based on teacher recommendations and assessment scores.
This was the ninth year for the camp, and 75 students took part.
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