Operation Comics began as a grant-funded project to develop a unique format for presenting grade-appropriate mathematics, as determined by NCTM standards, to students in grades 4 through 6. The comics, in print form, have been piloted at Cumberland Trace Elementary in Bowling Green, Kentucky, since January 2009.
The stories involve the adventures of Wonderguy, a strongman superhero who goes about doing good deeds, with the assistance of two very intelligent elementary school students, Claire and Dillon. In this fourth issue, Wonderguy encounters a talented trapeze artist named Aerial, who has decided to turn her impressive high-flying act into a career in crime. This presents a challenge to Wonderguy, who, despite his great strength, can not fly -- or can he? Wonderguy is going to need all the help he can get - especially from his mathematically-gifted sidekicks Claire and Dillon - in order to leave the ground behind and catch this heavenly hellion.
In this issue, the mathematics concepts of Newton’s Second Law (F = ma), “proportional to”, center of mass, solving for a squared variable in an equation are presented. A sample from the comic, a teacher supplement, and worksheets for the comic are available free at works.bepress.com/bruce_kessler/.
Please note that, although the comics are formatted for correct display for the NOOK, NOOKcolor, and both PC and Mac reader applications, the comics do not display correctly on the NOOK application for the iPhone. For best results with the NOOK and NOOKcolor, set Publisher Defaults to OFF, and adjust the margins if the comic should run off the side of your NOOK's page.
