Identifying Possible Underground Cavern Locations
Students work with scales and maps.Copyright (map) Adventure Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, and (cave photo) National Park Service
http://www.nps.gov/wica/photosmultimedia/Cave-Photos.htm
Continuing the Asteroid Impact challenge, students use their knowledge of scales and areas to determine the best locations in Alabraska for the underground caverns. They cut out rectangular paper pieces to represent caverns to scale with the maps. They place the paper cutouts on the maps to determine feasible locations. This is activity 4 of the Asteroid Impact curricular unit and builds on the previous activities in the the unit.
Engineers usually propose multiple solutions to problems, and then analyze each solution before selecting the one that best meets the criteria for success.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain that the same area can be represented by various shapes.
- Determine the length and width of a rectangle when given the area of a rectangle.
- Apply the map scale to create a cavern area.
- Synthesize multiple pieces of information and make a decision based on all the information.