The Pizza Perfect Caper is part of a hands-on videokit series called Detective Stories for Math Problem Solving. Geared for grades 5-8, The Pizza Perfect Caper offers students the opportunity to solve the problem of diamond smuggling at the Pleasantview distribution center for Pizza Perfect, Inc.

The videotape is divided into three parts. Part 1 introduces the heroes, Jodie Patterson and Billy Fox. The two are hired by Constance Witherspoon, president of Pizza Perfect, to find out if diamonds are being smuggled into the country in containers of pizza ingredients. Part 2 shows Billy, overeager to solve the problem, falling into the hands of the smugglers. Part 3 offers possible solutions to the problems.

The videotape is complemented by resources that the students may use to solve problems: an authentic-looking Annual Report for the Pizza Perfect Company; computer sheets of inventories for four local Pleasantview pizza parlors; and copies of the hometown newspaper, the Chronicle. The resource book, with over thirty pages of Detective's Diary fact sheets, investigations, and behind the-scenes supplementary problems, will guide the novice detectives toward a solution. My eighth-grade students found all this material quite exciting.

One of the best features of this kit is its adaptability to extensions and future projects. Once the problem of the diamonds has been solved, solvers can continue to use the newspaper and the annual report to solve other problems, or they can create problems of their own from the news, weather, sports, and crosswords puzzles. Statistics, percents, graphs, reasoning, and group discussion are all involved.

If you ignore the few flaws and a bit of overacting by the adult cast, you will have an exciting and mathematically stimulating supplement to your mathematics program that both your students and you will enjoy.

Jeffrey P. Holy, Dartmouth Middle School, Dartmouth, MA 02747

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