Deep Impact!

The “WHAT” and “WHY” of Exploring Craters

Introduction

In order to enrich students’ math education as much as possible, they will have the opportunity to participate in a five-week project to analyze real world phenomena in order to better understand mathematical concepts.  The lessons will comprise of unearthing craters, meteorite discovery, modeling an impact crater, and researching the K-T extinction.  Most of the work will be done inside the classroom within cooperative groups.  Students will be provided with safety equipment, like laboratory goggles, if any are required during the course of the project investigations.  The students will be working with common household products like flour and sand.  Grades will be based on participation, peer reviews, two quizzes, worksheets, the final presentation poster and the final presentation.  The only materials the student will need to provide themselves are writing utensils: a pen and a project notebook to track progress and make observations. 

Driving Question

The students will answer the question, “What factors affect the formation of impact craters?”

Overall Goals

Through the course of the project, students will learn mathematical concepts, like using functions to model trends, and scientific concepts, including astronomy, geology, and physics.  Students will also increase their exposure to technology by using computers for research.  At the end of the project, the students will present their ideas to the class.

Project Objectives

During the project, students will use flour and sand to show impacts of meteorites in the earth.  Students will learn about geology when discussing soil densities and substrate, they will learn physics when discussing forces involved in impacts and collisions, and they will learn mathematics when discussing how to model data and statistically analyze those data to try and predict the locations of future earth impacts. 

Rationale

This project gives students skills that are beneficial to them academically and in real world situations.  It will give students an introduction into statistics, physics, and geology.  Students will also be able to get introduced to astronomy.  When considering the forces surrounding impacts, students can get a better idea of how communities can be affected by meteorites, which is crucial during emergency situations.  Communities can better plan for catastrophic events when planners understand with how much force, which leads to how much damage, meteorites can impact certain areas. Students will learn problem solving and analytical skills and will learn to think critically and understand that there are many factors that contribute to specific outcomes.  They will also be able to think outside of the context of impact craters.  This is very important because it will help students learn how to dissect problems into smaller chunks in order to solve those problems more efficiently. 

Background

The mathematics that the students are exposed to in this unit project can be as complicated or as simple as the teacher deems to be necessary.  Students can learn algebra because mathematical relationships can be established between speed of meteorite and depth of impact crater.  This relationship can be expressed in more and more complex terms when the size of the meteorite, soil density and composition, angle of impact, and composition of meteorite are taken into account.  Students can learn geometry when calculating the surface area of a meteorite and the size of impact craters.  Students get exposed to calculus concepts when determining the age of craters using exponential decay of radioactive particles left by the meteorite.  The lesson plans that use meteorites and craters to teach mathematics must be adapted towards the specific area of mathematics the teacher wants to teach.  There may not be any direct evidence to indicate where the next meteorite will strike, but students can learn statistical concepts of regression and extrapolation by studying hypothetical values.  Aside from mathematics, students will also be able to learn science concepts from this project.  Physics and geology are two sciences that students can extensively get exposed to during this project.  The study of crater size and ejectile dispersion can teach students about the physics of forces and collisions.  Learning to analyze substrate layers can give students an idea of how old a crater is. 

TEKS

• Algebra II TEKS addressed: f, b1, c1
• AISD IPGs: Linear exponential and logarithmic functions, transformation of functions, and modeling and analyzing data.

Assessment

Students’ work on the project will be assessed on the following guidelines:

·                                Participation

Student is graded on participation in all aspects of project.  If each group member is required to complete a separate projecting task reflecting his/her strengths, then the student will be graded based on their completion of that task.  Each group member must be delegated an equal amount of responsibilities with respect to the other group members.

·                                Peer Review

In order to prevent a team member intentionally or unintentionally falling behind the rest of the group, each team member will evaluate the performance of every other team member in the group.  This will hold each group member accountable to the rest.

·                                Quiz I