It’s hard to study penguins in the winter in Antarctica. It’s dark all day and the average temperature is 72 degrees below zero. So scientists built a small robot, but the robot made the penguins nervous. Finally the scientists made the robot look like a furry penguin and that solved the problem. Some penguins have even tried singing to it. Since the robot penguin doesn’t need earmuffs, it’s a great listener.
Wee ones: What shape are the wheels on the robot penguin?
Little kids: If the robot penguin you see here has 2 wheels on this side, 2 on the other, and a spare underneath, how many wheels does it have? Bonus: If there are 8 grown-up penguins, 3 baby penguins, and 2 of these fluffy robots, how many real and fake penguins are there in total?
Big kids: Right now the South Pole is heading into summer, so it’s a nice warm -15 degrees by midday. How much warmer than -72 is that? Bonus: If there are twice as many penguins as robots and the real penguins have 44 feet in total, how many robots are there?
The sky’s the limit: We can’t tell you how many penguins are hanging out with this robot…but if you take that number, double it, add 2, and divide by 5, you get 46. How many penguins are there?
Answers:
Wee ones: A circle.
Little kids: 5 wheels. Bonus: 13 penguins.
Big kids: 57 degrees warmer. Bonus: 11 robots, since there are 22 penguins.
The sky’s the limit: 114 penguins. Working backwards, if we divided by 5 to get 46, the number before that step was 230. We added 2 to get there, so we had 228. We doubled the number to get to 228, so we started with 114.
