April 6th - 10th
Welcome to the second project-based enrichment activity! This week's schedule similar to the last one, except that we'll be using the Tuesday/Thursday "office hours" Zoom meeting for teams to collaborate. Details can be found here.
As always, if you have questions or comments, please email me or Mrs. Rossi at: everettj@issaquah.wednet.edu & rossis@issaquah.wednet.edu.
This week: Potpourri of Possibilities!
This week, each student will select one of three options (presented below). Just like last week, the goal is to understand the problem and then, with your group, in a OneNote page, explain it to your classmates in a way that is precise AND easy to understand.
Monday - Read the options below, fill out, and submit the form at the bottom of this page.
Option A - Compute š¯›‘ with a physical experiment!
Pi is one of the most interesting constants we know of. Yes, it is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. But, it also shows up in descriptions of DNA, the physics of light waves, the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and so many more places.
Your goal: Design and execute one (or more) experiments to compute the value of Pi. The more creative, the better! Then explain what you did to the class, use visuals and mathematics.
There are many ways people have found to compute Pi (and please don't just say - I used a calculator). One of the more entertaining is recreating something called the Buffon's Needle Problem using frozen hot-dogs. I wouldn't recommend using food, but this would be a very valid option.
Option B - The Brightness Illusion
Would you believe me if I told you that the orange circles in the below image are actually the same color? What if I told you that the squares they are place in are also the same color?
Your goal: Explain why our eyes and our intuition deceive us. Dig in to the problem - use math and visuals. Create an explanation that everyone will understand.
You might think that this problem doesn't require a lot of math. But, I'd argue that it requires problem solving (a key math skill) and to explain this precisely, you need to use math. You are viewing the image on a monitor, which uses a lot of math for gamma correction. Go as deep as you'd like!
There is also a really good video of this here.
Option C - The Dolly Zoom
OK, this is a challenging one. Only pick this one if you are interested in understanding about cameras, field of views, focal points, and perspective.
The dolly-zoom effect is something film makers have been using for many years. This is also sometimes called the vertigo effect.
Your goal: Explain how to setup a shot to perform a dolly-zoom on a target (in the video below, the actor is the target). Be precise, use specific distances, field of views, etc. Use visuals to make it clear.
Because I anticipate that we might not get enough people signing up for this one, I'm including a second choice in the form below. So, I apologize in advance if you are slotted into another group.
dolly-zoom.mp4