The Pirates of Poughkeepsie

It was Pirate Day in the 1-2s a little while back (arr!), and the buccaneers were out in force. Their captains, um, teachers, had a number of activities planned for them. One of these was locating a treasure chest that pirates of a previous era had buried somewhere in the Chapman Room. Luckily, these modern pirates had an appropriately antique map and faded directions.



“What’s it say next?” one pirate asked.

“Turn left,” another replied, squinting at the directions, and as one they all turned right.

“No, no, the other left,” their teacher explained helpfully.

They rotated 180° to the proper orientation. “Next,” said someone, “it says to take ten steps forward.” and they all took ten steps forward except for those who took twelve or thirteen because if ten steps are good then twelve or thirteen are even better, besides which if you’re the pirate in the lead you might get a bigger share of the treasure if and when it appears.



“Ten steps,” suggested the teacher....

So there they were, these young terrors-of-the-seas, thinking they were engaged in a search for hidden booty. But how wrong they were! Us Math Guy types knew the truth: They were actually engaged in Spatial Reasoning. Left, right, forward, backward, mapping, following directions, the whole nine yards. Proving that even pirates are mathematicians at heart--scuse me, at h(arr!)t.