DESIGN YOUR OWN SCAVENGER HUNT
DESIGN YOUR OWN SCAVENGER HUNT
Concepts Learned in this activity: -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
points line line segment plane collinear non-collinear coplanar concurrent graphing longitude latitude coordinates
Supplies: -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
-‐
paper pencil ruler you might want markers or something to make it colorful. backyard or park –location for the hunt, get creative, but always have permission for wherever you hold the hunt someone (or friends) to go through the hunt with you J
Step 1: Decide the area where your scavenger hunt is going to take place. Draw a map of that location. Use graph paper to draw on. Educator Note: Obviously “real life’ parks and back yards have elaborate shapes. Calculating the are of these spaces is another great activity on its’ own. For the sake of this activity, limit your “scavenger hunt area” to a space that can be represented by a large rectangle, or a series of squares and rectangles. If you enjoy a challenge, or just want to make this more entertaining for a more advanced student, there are instructions at the back for how to take it up a level. To continue with my guide here, let’s say you draw a rectangle like this one:
Step 2: Decide on a start point and an end point for your scavenger hunt. Ooo—notice here that you are using points. That’s geometry. Easier than you thought, now isn’t it? J Now your diagram should look something like this, but please note that your own creativity has great license here. That means, I want you to make your scavenger hunt fun for YOU, so if you want to climb things, bury things, hang things from high places, or even tie something onto your pet dog for someone to find (be nice to Fido), do what makes you laugh and smile—this is a fun activity.
Geometry explanation A plane is a lot like a piece of paper whose edges go on forever. It’s like a HUGE piece of paper. You can move around on a piece of paper, you can draw lines, angles, and circles or shapes. You can do a lot of things, except come out of the page. If you were to glue a sugar cube to the paper, then the cube has what’s called Height. When you add height, you’ve added a dimension, and are no longer inside a plane. Dimensions are a discussion for another day, but here’s a diagram of a plane.
Anything on this plane is coplanar with other things on the plane.
In many math textbooks they draw rectangles to identify “this is the plane”—and they do that, not to be complicated, but because planes are infinite and we are trying to learn. Since we are not Yoda, or God, or infinite, we have to explain things in a way that fits on our homework paper. That’s why teachers will describe planes as rectangles. A common representation of planes looks like this:
You could make your own diagram of this by putting two pieces of paper together. But now you get the idea of how planes work. Everything on the blue sheet of paper is in one plane, whereas everything on the yellow piece of paper is in another plane. You can fit as many papers you want into a diagram like this and have multiple planes. For the sake of this activity, though, everything on your scavenger hunt diagram is coplanar with each other, because they are all on the same page—literally. J
Step 3: Draw out the coordinates for the Start and finish points. On my graph from the previous page, the Starting point is at (- 3 , - 1) and my finish point is at (4 , 0 ). These are points. That’s a geometry term. Points. Each point is defined by coordinates. (x , y) A coordinate plane means a plane, where you draw coordinates.
If you want to pause here and review coordinates, the activity called “Kitchen Floor Graphing” is an introduction to coordinate systems. You can look it up on cassidycash.com or email me [email protected] to purchase that activity.
Step 4: Establish other points along the way from start to finish that you want your hunters to complete. This can be as many, or as few, as you like. Remember the more you put, the more fun it will be (but not too many, because you don’t want everyone you invite over spending the night…or maybe you do?) At any rate, for this step you now get to decide where you are going to hide clues, what the clues will be, and you are going to add them to your scavenger map. Here’s what I did for mine:
Start at the back porch. Clue 1: A tree grows in Brooklyn Answer 1: the first clue is hidden in the potted plant by our outdoor pond. Clue 2: Let sleeping dogs lie. Answer: the next clue is hidden in my dog house. Clue 3 : It’s a bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day! Answer : The next clue is hidden on the back of my sunglasses—which are somewhere in the backyard. Clue 4: Sit back and relax, and enjoy the show! Answer: The next clue is taped to the bottom of our patio chair. Clue 5 : slow and steady wins the race. Answer: the next clue is hidden by the turtle statue in our garden. Clue 6: Swing low, sweet chariot! Answer: the next clue is hidden on the swing set. Clue 7: Let them eat cake! Answer: the final clue leads everyone back to the kitchen where there’s a cake for everyone to enjoy! The amount of clues you have, and their level of difficulty, is up to you. These here are listed as examples of what you can do. When you draw them on your map—they could look like this:
Step 5: Now, take a minute and let’s show you where some of your geometry vocabulary fits onto what you’ve drawn. Collinear—this means any points that are on the same line. The “line” can be up and down, side-to-side, or diagonal. If you can draw a line through any two points, those two points are collinear. Example: The starting point, clue 2, and clue 5 are all on the same line—I know, because I can draw a line that includes them. Think of lines as being invisible until you draw them. They are there, but you have to draw them to “conclude things” about them. In this case, the three points are collinear, because they are on the same line, and I can show that by drawing the line. Shown here in blue.
What other collinear points can you find? Draw some examples on your scavenger hunt. Note: these collinear points are easy places for scavenger hunters to cheat at the game, since going from start to the doghouse point will be within their line of site (I can tell that since I graphed it here). Knowing that these points are within the line of site of someone on start, I can now add distractions, or hide the clue better. Graphing has a purpose! J
Step 6: Concurrent: On your scavenger hunt diagram- draw different routes from point to point. Pick three at a time, for example. How many routes go through the same point? When more than one route goes through the same point, those routes (or lines) are concurrent to each other. Another way to think of concurrent—and I think this is easier—is if lines intersect at a single point, they are concurrent. Like those drawings of the sun you made in elementary school. All of the rays of the sun are concurrent, because they intersect at the round ball of a point that is the sun. Like this: Put in a more mathy representation, you might draw it like this:
Non-collinear, means “not collinear” so since we know collinear means on the same line, non-collinear means points that are NOT on the same line.
Step 7: Now. To discuss lines and line segments. Lines go on forever. Line segments are partial lines—like pieces of rope. If you were to shine a flashlight out into the darkness, it doesn’t really end, it keeps on going, right? Well that’s an example of a ray. It has a starting point, and keeps on going in one direction. Like this:
A line would keep on going in both directions—an example (although, admittedly they DO end somewhere so this is not an accurate example of a line) would be railroad tracks. They keep going, and going, and going, “endlessly” in both directions. That’s a line.
A line segment is a section of a line, and in the case of your scavenger hunt, that’s mostly what you’re dealing with on your graph. You have a start point, and then an endpoint, that you can measure.
For example, the distance between start and point 1 on my graph is 50 steps. That’s a definable distance, and it’s a segment of a larger line. It’s a line segment.
Step 8: Take a look at your diagram and identify as many line segments as you can. There’s no “right answer” here, in the sense that you don’t have to worry about “Finding all of them” I just want you to practice finding line segments.
Step 9: The last math-like exercise we’ll do here before diving into hunt, is to take a look at the diagram one last time and identify how many graphing lines are crossed by the original rectangle you drew for your scavenger hunt area. Why? Because when you do this, you are identifying coplanar points, and concurrent lines. Do you see them?
Then, explain the other terms to your parents, siblings, or friends you can convince to listen to you, showing them on your diagram where those definitions are located. Much like what I’m walking you through here. After all, the best way to learn something is to teach it. So take advantage of that.
Step 10: Divide into teams and go on the hunt! Have a great time J you’re learning math. J
Concepts Learned in this activity: -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
points line line segment plane collinear non-collinear coplanar concurrent graphing longitude latitude coordinates
Supplies: -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
-‐
paper pencil ruler you might want markers or something to make it colorful. backyard or park –location for the hunt, get creative, but always have permission for wherever you hold the hunt someone (or friends) to go through the hunt with you J
Step 1: Decide the area where your scavenger hunt is going to take place. Draw a map of that location. Use graph paper to draw on. Educator Note: Obviously “real life’ parks and back yards have elaborate shapes. Calculating the are of these spaces is another great activity on its’ own. For the sake of this activity, limit your “scavenger hunt area” to a space that can be represented by a large rectangle, or a series of squares and rectangles. If you enjoy a challenge, or just want to make this more entertaining for a more advanced student, there are instructions at the back for how to take it up a level. To continue with my guide here, let’s say you draw a rectangle like this one:
Step 2: Decide on a start point and an end point for your scavenger hunt. Ooo—notice here that you are using points. That’s geometry. Easier than you thought, now isn’t it? J Now your diagram should look something like this, but please note that your own creativity has great license here. That means, I want you to make your scavenger hunt fun for YOU, so if you want to climb things, bury things, hang things from high places, or even tie something onto your pet dog for someone to find (be nice to Fido), do what makes you laugh and smile—this is a fun activity.
Geometry explanation A plane is a lot like a piece of paper whose edges go on forever. It’s like a HUGE piece of paper. You can move around on a piece of paper, you can draw lines, angles, and circles or shapes. You can do a lot of things, except come out of the page. If you were to glue a sugar cube to the paper, then the cube has what’s called Height. When you add height, you’ve added a dimension, and are no longer inside a plane. Dimensions are a discussion for another day, but here’s a diagram of a plane.
Anything on this plane is coplanar with other things on the plane.
In many math textbooks they draw rectangles to identify “this is the plane”—and they do that, not to be complicated, but because planes are infinite and we are trying to learn. Since we are not Yoda, or God, or infinite, we have to explain things in a way that fits on our homework paper. That’s why teachers will describe planes as rectangles. A common representation of planes looks like this:
You could make your own diagram of this by putting two pieces of paper together. But now you get the idea of how planes work. Everything on the blue sheet of paper is in one plane, whereas everything on the yellow piece of paper is in another plane. You can fit as many papers you want into a diagram like this and have multiple planes. For the sake of this activity, though, everything on your scavenger hunt diagram is coplanar with each other, because they are all on the same page—literally. J
Step 3: Draw out the coordinates for the Start and finish points. On my graph from the previous page, the Starting point is at (- 3 , - 1) and my finish point is at (4 , 0 ). These are points. That’s a geometry term. Points. Each point is defined by coordinates. (x , y) A coordinate plane means a plane, where you draw coordinates.
If you want to pause here and review coordinates, the activity called “Kitchen Floor Graphing” is an introduction to coordinate systems. You can look it up on cassidycash.com or email me [email protected] to purchase that activity.
Step 4: Establish other points along the way from start to finish that you want your hunters to complete. This can be as many, or as few, as you like. Remember the more you put, the more fun it will be (but not too many, because you don’t want everyone you invite over spending the night…or maybe you do?) At any rate, for this step you now get to decide where you are going to hide clues, what the clues will be, and you are going to add them to your scavenger map. Here’s what I did for mine:
Start at the back porch. Clue 1: A tree grows in Brooklyn Answer 1: the first clue is hidden in the potted plant by our outdoor pond. Clue 2: Let sleeping dogs lie. Answer: the next clue is hidden in my dog house. Clue 3 : It’s a bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day! Answer : The next clue is hidden on the back of my sunglasses—which are somewhere in the backyard. Clue 4: Sit back and relax, and enjoy the show! Answer: The next clue is taped to the bottom of our patio chair. Clue 5 : slow and steady wins the race. Answer: the next clue is hidden by the turtle statue in our garden. Clue 6: Swing low, sweet chariot! Answer: the next clue is hidden on the swing set. Clue 7: Let them eat cake! Answer: the final clue leads everyone back to the kitchen where there’s a cake for everyone to enjoy! The amount of clues you have, and their level of difficulty, is up to you. These here are listed as examples of what you can do. When you draw them on your map—they could look like this:
Step 5: Now, take a minute and let’s show you where some of your geometry vocabulary fits onto what you’ve drawn. Collinear—this means any points that are on the same line. The “line” can be up and down, side-to-side, or diagonal. If you can draw a line through any two points, those two points are collinear. Example: The starting point, clue 2, and clue 5 are all on the same line—I know, because I can draw a line that includes them. Think of lines as being invisible until you draw them. They are there, but you have to draw them to “conclude things” about them. In this case, the three points are collinear, because they are on the same line, and I can show that by drawing the line. Shown here in blue.
What other collinear points can you find? Draw some examples on your scavenger hunt. Note: these collinear points are easy places for scavenger hunters to cheat at the game, since going from start to the doghouse point will be within their line of site (I can tell that since I graphed it here). Knowing that these points are within the line of site of someone on start, I can now add distractions, or hide the clue better. Graphing has a purpose! J
Step 6: Concurrent: On your scavenger hunt diagram- draw different routes from point to point. Pick three at a time, for example. How many routes go through the same point? When more than one route goes through the same point, those routes (or lines) are concurrent to each other. Another way to think of concurrent—and I think this is easier—is if lines intersect at a single point, they are concurrent. Like those drawings of the sun you made in elementary school. All of the rays of the sun are concurrent, because they intersect at the round ball of a point that is the sun. Like this: Put in a more mathy representation, you might draw it like this:
Non-collinear, means “not collinear” so since we know collinear means on the same line, non-collinear means points that are NOT on the same line.
Step 7: Now. To discuss lines and line segments. Lines go on forever. Line segments are partial lines—like pieces of rope. If you were to shine a flashlight out into the darkness, it doesn’t really end, it keeps on going, right? Well that’s an example of a ray. It has a starting point, and keeps on going in one direction. Like this:
A line would keep on going in both directions—an example (although, admittedly they DO end somewhere so this is not an accurate example of a line) would be railroad tracks. They keep going, and going, and going, “endlessly” in both directions. That’s a line.
A line segment is a section of a line, and in the case of your scavenger hunt, that’s mostly what you’re dealing with on your graph. You have a start point, and then an endpoint, that you can measure.
For example, the distance between start and point 1 on my graph is 50 steps. That’s a definable distance, and it’s a segment of a larger line. It’s a line segment.
Step 8: Take a look at your diagram and identify as many line segments as you can. There’s no “right answer” here, in the sense that you don’t have to worry about “Finding all of them” I just want you to practice finding line segments.
Step 9: The last math-like exercise we’ll do here before diving into hunt, is to take a look at the diagram one last time and identify how many graphing lines are crossed by the original rectangle you drew for your scavenger hunt area. Why? Because when you do this, you are identifying coplanar points, and concurrent lines. Do you see them?
Then, explain the other terms to your parents, siblings, or friends you can convince to listen to you, showing them on your diagram where those definitions are located. Much like what I’m walking you through here. After all, the best way to learn something is to teach it. So take advantage of that.
Step 10: Divide into teams and go on the hunt! Have a great time J you’re learning math. J
