This video kit is designed to provide a creative resource for teachers of grades 5-8 to help implement the NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards. It provides problem-solving activities for use in cooperative learning groups. Students are guided to the discovery of a hidden treasure through solving geometry-based, open-ended problems posed by this interest-catching video.

This kit would be a unique addition to a school library or a college or university library supporting teacher education in mathematics. Since the level of difficulty of the problems given escalates quickly to a 10th-grade geometry level, teachers of grades 5 through 8 will have to allow approximately four to six class periods for this activity and be able to provide a fair amount of direction and hints to each cooperative learning group.

Accompanying materials, necessary for the use of the video, include six each of the mansion floor plan, secret society handbooks, and a local newspaper, as well as a teacher's resource book containing reproducible clues and worksheets. The targeted age groups should find the story line appealing and easy to follow.

The technical aspects of color, focus, sound quality, and subtitles are excellent. The music enhances the creepiness of the haunted mansion in which the treasure lies, as does the hazy quality of the photography within the mansion. The video is divided into three distinct sections. This makes it easy to stop the video for the students to work in groups to solve the problems presented.

The Manor House Mystery video kit is a unique way for mathematics teachers to encourage students to think creatively and solve open-ended problems. It should prove very useful to those who are willing to allot the time and effort required.

Georgia A. Baugh

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