This blog has been created as a forum for you, the students in EDMA 693, to give us, the instructors, feedback on each class session. In addition, we will use this blog as a way to collaborate as a class outside of our weekly webmeetings.
The Monster Lobe is a Frozen Debris Lobe (FDL) officially called FDL-A by researchers. This FDL is a shifting mass of frozen soil, rocks and trees traveling now at 1-inch per day. For 53 years, from 1955 - 2008, the mass only moved at 0.4 inches per day. So, considering the Monster Lobe is only 431 miles (69,362,726.4cm) from my school, I'm pretty happy it's moving slowly...especially if it decided to change course and head for us! As a side note...I looked this up on Google maps just for grins. I wonder what kind of vehicle they anticipate you using to make 617 miles (99,296,524.8cm) a 13 hour 26 minute drive, based on current road conditions? Of course, it's January 27th and 49 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so all bets are off as to the accuracy of this approximation. Do bizarre temperature changes have any impact on the mass? Could it actually speed up the movement of the FDL? There are actually some great perspective pictures of the monster lobe on ADN (http://www.adn.com/2012/12/01/2710503/frozen-landslide-threatens-to.html) and Alaska Dispatch (http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130813/only-alaska-creeping-frozen-landslide-threatens-critical-highway-and-pipeline?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=alaskaonline) that would be a fantastic visual to stimulate conversation and speculation (or, estimation) before actually having students figure out distances, rate of travel, and approximating arrival. The Alaska Dispatch site also offers some great explanation to help students understand what the debris is and how it moves.
Heather, great job researching the monster lobe! That information - and your questions - will certainly come into play as we explore the movement of the lobe. Does temperature effect mass? (Chemistry question) Could the monster lobe speed up? (Science and math question) For both answers, you'd probably need to know what the lobe was made of... Heather, would you please post your work to convert from miles to centimeters? You would need to make a separate post for a picture.
Thanks, it's actually a pretty cool blob! We had fun figuring out the coordinates (I located before the email came out with them!) via maps and locating coordinates on Google Earth. We also used a flight app to verify the straight line "as the crows fly".
I wasn't fancy figuring the math. Convert miles to cm using the conversion rate of 1 mi = 160934.4 cm 431 * 160934.4 = 69362726.4 617 * 160934.4 = 99296424.8
I scanned a google map and my work, but I was unable to drop it into this blog, So, I am going to summerize. It is 1,030.6 miles from the Monster Lobe to Juneau. To convert that I knew that1 mile X 1.609344 km/1 mile = 1.609344 km, so I multiplied 1030.6 X 1.609344 km = 1,658.589926 km. Then I know that 1 km = 1000 m and that 1m = 100 cm. So, 1,658,589.926 m X 1000 m = 1,658,589.926 m. Then 1,658,589.926 m X 100 = 165,858,992,6 cm. Thus it takes 1,030.6 miles or 165,858,992,6 cm to get to Juneau from the Monster Lobe.
Conversions are super important in being able to figure things out, but I totally agree that it is something that we should not waste time in memorizing. Teaching that there is a conversion method to find the solution to things is different than forcing them to memorize it. There are so many resources now today that makes it easy to find things, so why waste your time in memorizing something that you can look up quickly? You can focus on the more pressing matters, like the fact that the Monster Lobe will not be impacting my community in my lifetime. I really don't need to worry about it in Juneau. But, if I am concerned about the pipeline (which all Alaskans should be) it is something that we need to worry about to keep from damaging what we have built for Alaska. This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed, but it needs a lot of thought. I really like the fact that we are going to be taking it back to our students to get a fresh look at what they think. They certainly think differently than we do, and I look forward to exploring the depths of their thoughts on the matter.
Thanks for your post, Sunshine. I like your response to the question "Why should we care if we don't live near the lobe?"
For the conversion of distance, I imagine the work you wrote looks different, but check your post for the steps you actually included...
1030.6 X 1.609344 km = 1,658.589926 km. (okay) Then I know that 1 km = 1000 m and that 1m = 100 cm. So, 1,658,589.926 m X 1000 m = 1,658,589.926 m. (meters squared?) Then 1,658,589.926 m X 100 = 165,858,992,6 cm. (units got dropped and maybe there's a comma where there should be a period?) Thus it takes 1,030.6 miles or 165,858,992,6 cm to get to Juneau from the Monster Lobe.
I like keeping some conversions handy upstairs just as a sanity device. Like rough temperature conversions from deg C to deg F (double it, add 30), or backwards (subtract 30, divide by 2), and inches to cm (using a rough factor of 2.5). Rough conversions like these makes head math a lot easier.
The Monster Lobe is at 67.49 degrees North, 149.49 degrees West. Russian Jack Elementary School in Anchorage is at 61.121 degrees N, 149.4758 degrees West. I had taken photos of this but I couldn't upload the photo to this blog. Next time, I will set up my blog entry differently. So, using the website, http://boulter.com/gps/distance I found that the lobe is 441.9 miles away from my school. 441.9 miles * 5280 feet = 2,333,232 feet away. 2,33,232 feet * 12 inches = 27,998,784 inches away 27,998,784 inches * 2.54 cm in an inch = 71,116,911.4 cm away.
Reflections from the class: I think I must be the only one who isn't using Mine Craft with the class because we can't use it in our school. I also am so pathetic using Mine Craft, there should be some sort of a resource class for me to get some one on one tutoring, hopefully taught by a six year old. Seriously..... I love STEM, I like the process of problem solving, of looking at the big picture from various perspectives. I think this class will be a great experience so that I can better teach my students, even if in first grade, ways to approach a problem or situation and think outside of the box, so to speak. This class will cause me to get out of my comfort zone! Debbie
Hang in there, Debbie! I think you and your students will still get a lot out of this class even if you don't use Minecraft in your classroom. The STEM content is huge!! I'm glad you're willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn more :) For your distance conversion, I would suggest using fractions so your units and the equal sign make sense:
So my photo would not post so I will summarize how I figured out the distance in centimeters. I broke it up into chunks, the distance between Atmautluak and Coldfoot is 571 miles, then the distance between Coldfoot and the monster lobe is 40 miles. Using this the distance between Atmautluak and the monster lobe is 611 miles. 611 miles x 1609.34 meters/1mile=983,306.74 meters 983,306.74 meters x 100 cm/meters=98,330,674 cm
The distance between Atmautluak and the monster lobe is 611 miles or 98,330,674 cm
Nice job, Sara. The picture should work if you make a new post instead of a comment, but your summary was good. Put a couple parentheses around your conversion factor to make it clearer and you're good to go.
Monster lobe is located at 69.49N and 149.49W. Turnagain Elementary School is located at 61.194N, 149.949 W. The distance in kilometers is 922.7. Multiply this times 100,000 means it is 92270000 centimeters (also equal to 573.339 miles). I used the website movable-type.co.uk to enter the latitude and longitude of each location. A map came up with the distance in km but I cannot figure out how to share the screenshot I took.
The Monster Lobe is a Frozen Debris Lobe (FDL) officially called FDL-A by researchers. This FDL is a shifting mass of frozen soil, rocks and trees traveling now at 1-inch per day. For 53 years, from 1955 - 2008, the mass only moved at 0.4 inches per day. So, considering the Monster Lobe is only 431 miles (69,362,726.4cm) from my school, I'm pretty happy it's moving slowly...especially if it decided to change course and head for us!
ReplyDeleteAs a side note...I looked this up on Google maps just for grins. I wonder what kind of vehicle they anticipate you using to make 617 miles (99,296,524.8cm) a 13 hour 26 minute drive, based on current road conditions? Of course, it's January 27th and 49 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so all bets are off as to the accuracy of this approximation. Do bizarre temperature changes have any impact on the mass? Could it actually speed up the movement of the FDL?
There are actually some great perspective pictures of the monster lobe on ADN (http://www.adn.com/2012/12/01/2710503/frozen-landslide-threatens-to.html) and Alaska Dispatch (http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130813/only-alaska-creeping-frozen-landslide-threatens-critical-highway-and-pipeline?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=alaskaonline) that would be a fantastic visual to stimulate conversation and speculation (or, estimation) before actually having students figure out distances, rate of travel, and approximating arrival. The Alaska Dispatch site also offers some great explanation to help students understand what the debris is and how it moves.
Heather, great job researching the monster lobe! That information - and your questions - will certainly come into play as we explore the movement of the lobe. Does temperature effect mass? (Chemistry question) Could the monster lobe speed up? (Science and math question) For both answers, you'd probably need to know what the lobe was made of...
DeleteHeather, would you please post your work to convert from miles to centimeters? You would need to make a separate post for a picture.
Thanks, it's actually a pretty cool blob! We had fun figuring out the coordinates (I located before the email came out with them!) via maps and locating coordinates on Google Earth. We also used a flight app to verify the straight line "as the crows fly".
DeleteI wasn't fancy figuring the math.
Convert miles to cm using the conversion rate of 1 mi = 160934.4 cm
431 * 160934.4 = 69362726.4
617 * 160934.4 = 99296424.8
I scanned a google map and my work, but I was unable to drop it into this blog, So, I am going to summerize. It is 1,030.6 miles from the Monster Lobe to Juneau. To convert that I knew that1 mile X 1.609344 km/1 mile = 1.609344 km, so I multiplied 1030.6 X 1.609344 km = 1,658.589926 km. Then I know that 1 km = 1000 m and that 1m = 100 cm. So, 1,658,589.926 m X 1000 m = 1,658,589.926 m. Then 1,658,589.926 m X 100 = 165,858,992,6 cm. Thus it takes 1,030.6 miles or 165,858,992,6 cm to get to Juneau from the Monster Lobe.
ReplyDeleteConversions are super important in being able to figure things out, but I totally agree that it is something that we should not waste time in memorizing. Teaching that there is a conversion method to find the solution to things is different than forcing them to memorize it. There are so many resources now today that makes it easy to find things, so why waste your time in memorizing something that you can look up quickly? You can focus on the more pressing matters, like the fact that the Monster Lobe will not be impacting my community in my lifetime. I really don't need to worry about it in Juneau. But, if I am concerned about the pipeline (which all Alaskans should be) it is something that we need to worry about to keep from damaging what we have built for Alaska. This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed, but it needs a lot of thought. I really like the fact that we are going to be taking it back to our students to get a fresh look at what they think. They certainly think differently than we do, and I look forward to exploring the depths of their thoughts on the matter.
Thanks for your post, Sunshine. I like your response to the question "Why should we care if we don't live near the lobe?"
DeleteFor the conversion of distance, I imagine the work you wrote looks different, but check your post for the steps you actually included...
1030.6 X 1.609344 km = 1,658.589926 km. (okay)
Then I know that 1 km = 1000 m and that 1m = 100 cm.
So, 1,658,589.926 m X 1000 m = 1,658,589.926 m. (meters squared?)
Then 1,658,589.926 m X 100 = 165,858,992,6 cm. (units got dropped and maybe there's a comma where there should be a period?)
Thus it takes 1,030.6 miles or 165,858,992,6 cm to get to Juneau from the Monster Lobe.
I like keeping some conversions handy upstairs just as a sanity device. Like rough temperature conversions from deg C to deg F (double it, add 30), or backwards (subtract 30, divide by 2), and inches to cm (using a rough factor of 2.5). Rough conversions like these makes head math a lot easier.
DeleteThe Monster Lobe is at 67.49 degrees North, 149.49 degrees West. Russian Jack Elementary School in Anchorage is at 61.121 degrees N, 149.4758 degrees West. I had taken photos of this but I couldn't upload the photo to this blog. Next time, I will set up my blog entry differently. So, using the website, http://boulter.com/gps/distance I found that the lobe is 441.9 miles away from my school.
ReplyDelete441.9 miles * 5280 feet = 2,333,232 feet away.
2,33,232 feet * 12 inches = 27,998,784 inches away
27,998,784 inches * 2.54 cm in an inch = 71,116,911.4 cm away.
Reflections from the class: I think I must be the only one who isn't using Mine Craft with the class because we can't use it in our school. I also am so pathetic using Mine Craft, there should be some sort of a resource class for me to get some one on one tutoring, hopefully taught by a six year old. Seriously.....
I love STEM, I like the process of problem solving, of looking at the big picture from various perspectives. I think this class will be a great experience so that I can better teach my students, even if in first grade, ways to approach a problem or situation and think outside of the box, so to speak. This class will cause me to get out of my comfort zone!
Debbie
Hang in there, Debbie! I think you and your students will still get a lot out of this class even if you don't use Minecraft in your classroom. The STEM content is huge!! I'm glad you're willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn more :)
DeleteFor your distance conversion, I would suggest using fractions so your units and the equal sign make sense:
441.9 miles * (5280 feet / 1 mile) = 2,333,232 feet
2,333,232 feet * (12 inches / 1 ft) = 27,998,784 inches
27,998,784 inches * (2.54 cm / 1 in) = 71,116,911.4 cm
So my photo would not post so I will summarize how I figured out the distance in centimeters. I broke it up into chunks, the distance between Atmautluak and Coldfoot is 571 miles, then the distance between Coldfoot and the monster lobe is 40 miles. Using this the distance between Atmautluak and the monster lobe is 611 miles.
ReplyDelete611 miles x 1609.34 meters/1mile=983,306.74 meters
983,306.74 meters x 100 cm/meters=98,330,674 cm
The distance between Atmautluak and the monster lobe is 611 miles or 98,330,674 cm
Nice job, Sara. The picture should work if you make a new post instead of a comment, but your summary was good. Put a couple parentheses around your conversion factor to make it clearer and you're good to go.
ReplyDeleteMonster lobe is located at 69.49N and 149.49W. Turnagain Elementary School is located at 61.194N, 149.949 W. The distance in kilometers is 922.7. Multiply this times 100,000 means it is 92270000 centimeters (also equal to 573.339 miles). I used the website movable-type.co.uk to enter the latitude and longitude of each location. A map came up with the distance in km but I cannot figure out how to share the screenshot I took.
ReplyDelete