Math Challenge March 1

Your friend shows you an article from a recent Time Magazine for Kids. It says:

On a recent class trip to Yellowstone National Park, a student was chased to the top of a very slippery tree that was thirty-six (36) feet high. The teacher tried to save the student but it was no use, so she used her cell phone to call in the park rangers. One quick thinking ranger, immediately dispatched a helicopter to rescue the student. He told the teacher it would take exactly twelve (12) minutes for the helicopter to arrive, drop a ladder, and help the student climb up to safety.
Meanwhile, back at the scene, the Bear began to climb the tree. It climbed up eight (8) feet in one minute time but the next minute the bear slid back down the tree four (4) feet. This pattern of going up eight (8) feet up in one minute and sliding back down four (4) feet the next minute continued.



Unfortunately, the bottom of the article got chewed off by your friends new puppy. Use your math skills and math materials available to you in your classroom (paper, pencil, ruler, manipulatives...) to figure out whether the student survived or not!

Rewrite the missing end of the article explaining whether the student survived or not. Make sure that you include an explanation of your how you figured this out, an detailed picture to illustrate your thoughts, and your reasoning why you figured it out the way you did.