The purpose of this activity is to engage students in using mathematical constructions to locate a position on a topographical map.
This activity assumes the students have experience in the following areas:
The problem is sufficiently open ended to allow the students freedom of choice in their approach. It may be scaffolded with guidance that leads to a solution, and/or the students might be given the opportunity to solve the problem independently.
The example responses at the end of the resource give an indication of the kind of response to expect from students who approach the problem in particular ways.
Seismometers have been installed in many schools around New Zealand. When an earthquake is recorded, there are two main peaks in the series of squiggles the seismometer makes. The distance between those peaks can be used to tell how far away the the epicentre of the earthquake was. In one event, three North Island schools detected an earthquake and found the epicentre to be:
Find the epicentre of that earthquake.
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the phases of the Mathematics Investigation Cycle.
Introduce the problem. Allow students time to read it and discuss in pairs or small groups.
Discuss ideas about how to solve the problem. Emphasise that, in the planning phase, you want students to say how they would solve the problem, not to actually solve it.
Allow students time to work through their strategy and find a solution to the problem.
Allow students time to check their answers and then either have them pair share with other groups or ask for volunteers to share their solution with the class.
The student uses a scale map of the North Island. They draw circles an appropriate radius from each town by using the scale on the map. The student finds the epicentre by looking for the common point of intersection of the circles.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close.
The student develops a sense of the location of the epicentre from the given distances from each town, particularly Taupō and Gisborne. They use arcs and ruler measurements to scale to find a more accurate location for the epicentre.
Printed from https://meaningfulmaths.nt.edu.au/mmws/nz/resource/where-epicentre at 8:50pm on the 26th February 2024