Elementary Workbook

Page 1

Note to the Teacher:

Our Education Days workbook is designed for students to engage in activities as

they explore Kings Dominion. Rocket Research and How High is High? are

activities intended for education days with the MathScience Innovation Center.

The rest of the activities that follow can be completed any day in the park. One

goal of the activities is to encourage students to see how mathematics and

science are everywhere – and that includes fun places like Kings Dominion.

Please note that the activities in this workbook are open-ended to allow for

exploration and discovery. Another important aspect of students’ work that you

will see in this workbook is the central role of explanation and the sharing of

ideas. Collaboration on activities and tasks is highly encouraged and all

members of the team must be able to understand and explain how their team

arrived at their results.

Finally, please encourage students to try. Many times students wait for exact

instruction from a teacher before they engage in a task only to mimic the steps

given to them. The activities in this workbook, though guided, are intended to

give students some latitude in searching for mathematics and science concepts

gently tucked away in the fun at the park.

Page 2

What’s in this workbook?

Name Common Core Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)

Major concept/task

Rocket Research (Education Days Only)

6.EE.9 m4.7 s3.1 s4.1 s5.1 s6.1 s7.1 s8.1 LS.1 m8.17

Set up and test a variable

Rate the Ride PS.10 Design a rating system using qualitative data

Watching Winners 7.SP.5 7.SP.6 S.MD.5

m4.13 m4.14 m5.14 m7.9

Gathering data from experimental probability

What a Wonderful Day s4.6

Use knowledge of weather to rate the day for outdoor activity

Curious Quests s3.2

Apply knowledge of simple machines to real world situations

My KD Mascot s3.4 LS.9 Apply knowledge of environment to animal habitat

How High is High? (Education Days Only)

4.MD.6 G.SRT.8

m5.11 m8.6 T.9 Measure angles and use a table to find the height of an inaccessible object

Shape Search 3.G.1 m3.14 m4.12 m5.13 m6.13 m7.7

Recognize geometric shapes in real world setting

Page 3

Rocket Research

At Kings Dominion, try your hand at an experiment at the Rocket Research table. With a

partner design a rocket and launch it up, up and away. It’s as easy as 3-2-1.

3. Choose your nose cone.

2. Choose your fins (number of fins and shape).

1. Design 2 identical rockets with one small change.

What did you change? _____________________________________ (Independent Variable)

Which rocket do you think will travel farther (dependent

variable)? Explain why you think that below (hypothesis).

My Hypothesis:

Now test your prediction. Set up your experiment so all the variables are the same except the

one thing you and your partner switched.

What were the results?

What can you conclude about your experiment?

Do your results make sense? Yes or No Why or Why not?

________________________________

Does your experiment mean those same results will happen every time? Yes or No

Be prepared to explain and share your answer.

Page 4

Length of ride is important to me, so I am going to give my favorite ride, the Rebel Yell, a 9.

Rate My Ride

Part of your time at Kings Dominion is seeing how many rides you can discover during your stay. It’s very

difficult to ride every ride in a single day. Choices need to be made. Designing a metric can help you

determine which rides you should tackle today.

To begin, list 5 aspects of rides that are important to you when deciding which rides you want to ride.

List them below.

Important When Choosing A Ride

Now score each one based on how important it is to you. (1 through 10 – 1 is the lowest, 10 is the

highest)

Using your system, determine which ride you should go to first. Which

one would be next? And next?

1.

2.

3.

Now look at the map of the park. Estimate how long it will take you to ride your top 3

rides including travel time to each ride. ____________

What factors did you use to help you make your estimate?

Does this affect the order? Yes or No.

Why or why not? Explain

Page 5

Watching Winners

Is there a way to increase your odds of winning a big prize without the need to spend a small fortune?

Or, at least figure out how often you have to play a game before you are fairly certain you will win a

prize?

Just as athletes and coaches watch their opponents play to figure out a way to win, so can you. Find a

game or prize that you like. Now stand back and watch to see how often someone wins a big prize.

Keep track of how often the game is played (with wins and losses too). Also note skill. Is there

something the winner did differently to help them win?

Special skill or technique needed:

Conclusion:

Page 6

What a Wonderful Day

What would be the perfect day at Kings Dominion? Using your knowledge of weather, determine which factors mean the most to your day at the park. Is it better to be 80 degrees and humid or 85 degrees and dry? Use your own scale to find the perfect conditions then rate the day.

Weather includes factors such as temperature, humidity, sunniness, cloudiness, rain, and wind.

Determine the recipe for the perfect day. Place a mark in each row to help determine your perfect day.

Factor More of ↙ This

Equal Amounts

More of This ↘

Factor

Cloudy Sunny

Humid Dry

Calm Windy

Dry Rain

Hot Cold

Write a sentence or two that describes your perfect day:

Page 7

Curious Quests

Simple machines help us by giving us what is called a mechanical advantage. Usually that means

the machine helps us move something more easily.

Simple machines include: incline plane, lever, pulley, wheel & axel, screw, and wedge. Each is

shown below.

Simple Machines

Motion is a big part of the fun at Kings Dominion. The rides use many, many simple machines

to add fun, speed, energy efficiency, and safety. The question is, can you find them?

You have your quest, you choose your level of expertise.

Level 1 – Entry Level Seeker - pick a ride, find as many simple machines in that ride as you can.

Level 2 –Intermediate Seeker - find at least one example of each simple machine mentioned above (use

as many rides as you like).

Level 3 – Expert Seeker - find the ride that has the most simple machines. (Be sure to keep track of the

ones you eliminated to arrive at your winner.)

Page 8

Curious Quests

Name

of the

Ride

Simple Machine Location of the Simple

Machine on the Ride

What does the

Simple Machine

do for the ride?

Page 9

My KD Mascot

Spend some time walking the park. Note the terrain, the plants, the people, and everything that makes up Kings Dominion. Now, using your knowledge of animals, pick the best animal to be a KD mascot in the park.

Which animal would you choose? What type of living area is

best suited for your

animal?

List 3 characteristics of

Kings Dominion that

matter to animals

1. 2. 3.

How is your animal

prepared to handle those

conditions?

1. 2. 3.

Where is your animal going to sleep?

What traits would your mascot need to develop that would make him/her better suited for life at Kings

Dominion?

Draw your animal here and label any traits that make your choice a fit for a life in the park.

Page 10

How High is High?

Clinometer Template TAPE WEIGHTED STRING HERE

* For best results, print on cardstock

Mathematics allows us to go places we cannot get to. Using a clinometer, you can figure out

the distance (or in this case the height) of an object using your line of sight (eye).

DIRECTIONS: Cut out the template above. Use a piece of sting or yarn a little longer than the 0-

line above and a weight (like a washer). Tie the washer to one end of the string and tape the

other end to the marked vertex above. Tape the straw as shown above.

USE: The easiest way to use it is look through one end while a partner

reads the angle where the string is dangling.

TAPE STRAW HERE

*This activity is 3 pages*

25˚ angle

Page 11

How High is High? (continued)

Using the table of values below, we can calculate the height of objects without having to leave

the ground! All we need is the distance we are from the object, and the angle from where we

are to the height of that object.

Distance

Luckily, at Kings Dominion has some distances marked off for you. The distance multiplied by

the tangent (tan.) will give you the height of the object.

ABOUT THIS CHART: Triangles are unique shapes, and right triangles are very powerful when designing, building and calculating.

If you know one angle of a right triangle (besides the right angle), then you can calculate the measures of all the sides by

knowing just one side of the triangle. The angle measures and the relationship they make with the sides of the triangle are

listed below.

How High is High? (continued)

Angle Tan. Angle Tan. Angle Tan. Angle Tan. Angle Tan. Angle Tan.

1° .02 15° .27 29° .55 43° .93 57° 1.54 71° 2.90

2° .03 16° .29 30° .58 44° .97 58° 1.60 72° 3.08

3° .05 17° .31 31° .60 45° 1.00 59° 1.66 73° 3.27

4° .07 18° .32 32° .62 46° 1.04 60° 1.73 74° 3.49

5° .09 19° .34 33° .65 47° 1.07 61° 1.80 75° 3.73

6° .11 20° .36 34° .67 48° 1.11 62° 1.88 76° 4.01

7° .12 21° .38 35° .70 49° 1.15 63° 1.96 77° 4.33

8° .14 22° .40 36° .73 50° 1.19 64° 2.05 78° 4.70

9° .16 23° .42 37° .75 51° 1.23 65° 2.14 79° 5.14

10° .18 24° .45 38° .78 52° 1.28 66° 2.25 80° 5.67

11° .19 25° .47 39° .81 53° 1.33 67° 2.36 81° 6.31

12° .21 26° .49 40° .84 54° 1.38 68° 2.48 82° 7.12

13° .23 27° .51 41° .87 55° 1.43 69° 2.61 83° 8.14

14° .25 28° .53 42° .90 56° 1.48 70° 2.75 84° 9.51

Heigh

t

Don’t take our word for it, try for yourself. Make 2 right triangles that have the same angles but different lengths for its sides. Use a fraction to compare the sides to one another, see what you discover!

Page 12

How High is High? (continued)

Calculating the height The decimal number in the chart gives you the ratio of height to distance for the angle given. It tells you what part

of the distance is used compared to the height of the object. So, for example, if the angle is 64° then the height is

a little more than two times the distance.

So, how many heights can you calculate around the park?

Use the chart below to record your findings.

BONUS QUESTION: Mark found that from where he was standing, the Eifel Tower and the

tallest hill on the Rebel Yell were the same distance to his position. He predicted that they

would be the same height since he was the same distance from the two rides. Is Mark’s

prediction correct? Explain using mathematical thinking and your knowledge of finding heights.

Ride Angle Distance

from Ride Calculations HEIGHT

Page 13

Shape Search

Shapes, shapes are everywhere. What shapes can you find in the park? Find

as many different types of shapes as you can.

Have fun. With a partner, give yourself a set amount of time to find shapes

around the park. How many can you find in 20 minutes? Can you find more

than your partner?

Use the chart below to keep track.

Number of different shapes: 1 to 4 Amateur Sleuth

5 to 9 A Searching Professional

10 or more The Great Finder!

Location Shape Found Evidence

Base of the first hill on the

Ricochet. triangle

It has three sides, that means it a

triangle.