Research Experience for Teachers (2015-2016)
What Is Your “Queue” Time?
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The Big Idea (including global relevance) The Big Idea for this unit is how to minimize wait time; specifically in relationship to car travel. This idea is important because of the effects traffic congestion with air pollution, the psychological effects with stress, and the social effects that involve time and money. |
Essential Questions How can intersections be improved to move cars at a more constant rate? |
The Hook
I plan on using two videos to show to my class. The first is a video produced for Corning titled a Day Made of Glass. The second is a clip from the movie, Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. The clip shows cars moving very fast on a freeway system with no congestion though high volume. The videos are being used to inspire students about what an ideal freeway system could look like and what cars of the future could look like. I also plan on taking my students on a “walking fieldtrip”. We will visit a nearby 5-point intersection and collect data (wait time, number of cars in queue, light time, design of intersection). |
The Challenge For the challenge, students will construct a graphical model of an “efficient” intersection. |
Guiding Questions
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ACS (Real world applications; career connections; societal impact)
I believe this Challenge strongly applies to the real world since most people encounter intersections every single day in their travels. I also believe it introduces to my students how engineering is used in the real world. Hopefully my students will understand that a common goal of engineers is to make the world better through problem solving. What activities in this Unit apply to real world context? The real world activities involved with this Challenge include the gathering information assignment where students have to investigate different intersection models and the implementation piece where students have to create a graphical model of their intersection.
I feel this Challenge exhibits a strong impact on society because people want to quickly get between two points. People do not like to wait; whether it is in traffic or in stores. How time is spent is very important to people.
Ideally I would love to have a civil engineer come to my classroom and speak about the different aspects of his/her job. If this is not possible, I will have my students do a short poster presentation of the different civil engineering jobs. I would also like to incorporate a “kahoot” lesson where I ask the class different questions in regards to engineering.
Misconceptions
- Math students always want the quickest way to that one right answer. Students might assume that there are a very limited number of options when it comes to constructing an intersection. My hope is that when they do their research on the design possibilities they will develop a greater understanding of the engineering process and how there can be more than one “right” answer.
Unit Lessons and Activities
- Lesson 1:
- Activity 1: 1 day—Big Idea, Hook, Essential Questions
- Activity 2: 2 days—Queue Theory Lesson
- Lesson 2:
- Activity 3: 2 days—Walking Field Trip Lesson
- Activity 4: 4days—Challenge: Makeover an Intersection
- Evidence of CBL: Activity 1,2,3,4
- Evidence of EDP:
Additional Resources