Monday, 1/21/2012
HOW DO I DO THIS? is a common question for the project.
First of all, you have taken notes on GPS, so you have an idea of how this works. I'd suggest that one of the questions you ask is, "How does GPS let us do this, and is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Second, you need to have a project. A project can be doing something (like 4Square), researching something (like military drones) or comparing a known standard (like the maps on Google Earth) to results gotten with your cell phone app.
Third, do something with the information you gathered. You could make a game, create a visual exhibit, draw a series of cartoons using rage comics, make an interactive model, or even write up a tutorial on how to do something--or something else I haven't thought about. The point is that it a) interests you b) is interesting and informative to others and c) is well done, with supported information and research.
I have allocated Monday and Tuesday for research/design h and Wednesday for presentations on applications of vectors.
Your Task: Use your understanding of GPS and/or Vectors to explain one of the following. Include a sample scaling problem, concrete examples and graphics as appropriate, along with a Resource sheet.
Topics to consider:
- How 4Square and Facebook check-in work. Advantages and disadvantages. (I'd suggest checking in at least 10 places in the Mantown area if you do this. Use Google Earth to find the exact latitude and longitude)
- Developing a Geocaching Hunt (Brrr...if you do this, it will be cold. Make a hunt, but then explain exactly HOW you did it. If you have an app to do that, explain it.)
- Precision Agriculture (check out many of the online farm journals, or agleader.com, or other sites. Why do they have to sample the fields to use this technology? How accurate is it? Do you want to have tractors with auto-steering? Is this the future of farming?)
- Military Drone Targeting (Type in a location, and a remote control bomb can drop on a location half-way across the world. Human rights activists suggest that this technology is not as accurate as it should be, and many civilans have been harmed.)
- Discoveries using Google Earth (military secrets, shipwrecks and hidden treasure, and perhaps undiscovered archeological finds....all from your armchair. Where have these things been found? What is the GPS location of some of these secrets?)
- Using Vector-scaled technology in Powerpoint and Adobe Illustrator
- Problems and Foibles with your Automatic Navigator (at what point should you stop listening to the voice and use your common sense? What about the Apple Maps fiasco? Where do the maps used in these applications come from, anyway?)
- A GPSwatch, Mapmyride.com and other software will let you connect your walk, bike r)ide, or trip to a GPS satellite to help you get accurate data for training purposes. Is this the future of athletic training? Is it a benefit or an obsession? How do these things work?)
- Navigation in Flight (What does it take to to be a aeroflight navigator, and how is it different than the Google Tours we just put together? How has GPS replaced sin, cos, and tan and the Pythagorean theorem needed by navigators of the mid-century last year?
Grading:
Presentation (this can be a flipped video to show to the class or you can present)--15
Digitized artifacts (upload everything to a Google Drive folder, and then share with me)--15
Demonstrated Understandings in Physics related to vectors and/or GPS--15
Quality/Resources--15
