Project Title: Traffic Investigation

School Site: Ockley Green Middle School Subject Area: 8^th Grade Mathematics

Contact Information: Evalena Leitz, email: hzlnt351@aol.com, phone: 503-286-7528

Project Description: Last year a speed bump was removed from the street that borders Ockley Green MS. The posted speed is 20 mph at all times. The students were given the investigation question of whether or not we need a speed bump next to our school. From the beginning of the investigation one of the groups was informed that they would be creating a PowerPoint presentation to be shared with members of our community about our traffic investigation.

Project Outline:

Lesson 1 – Investigation Introduction: The goal of this lesson was to introduce students to the problem and come up with ways to investigate whether or not we needed a speed bump. Students were also placed in teams and spent time reviewing the procedure for collecting and converting data.

Lesson 2 – Collecting Data: The goal of this lesson was for students to collect the speed of the cars that drive where the speed bump was removed. The plan was for students to use Vernier Probes and motion detectors – but this did not work out as planned. Instead students used marked distance and stop watches to calculate the speed of the cars. Students then inputted their data into an Excel spreadsheet.

Lesson 3 – Interpreting Data: In preparation for this lesson, the teacher created box-plots of the data using internet tools. The goal of this lesson was for students to compare box-plots of the class data, looking at different variables. The most important piece of this was students seeing the difference in speed when the drivers couldn’t see the students compared to when students were next to the street. This helped students see the impact of their presence (even though the teacher pointed out cars slowing down when they saw students).

Lesson 4 – Creating a PowerPoint Presentation: Students remained in their original teams and each group was given a section of the PowerPoint to create (Introduction, Process, Data and Conclusion). Students were given CD-R disks that had all of the digital pictures, graphs and a PowerPoint template to work from.

Technology Used and Explored:

Microsoft PowerPoint, Producer and Excel

Vernier Probes with Motion Detectors

Many Blank CD-R disks

Internet Tools: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/boxplot/index.html

Video and Digital Camera

Other Resources:

Handouts: Daily Journal, Investigation Outline, Data Collection Sheets, Team Task Cards

Backup Technology: Sidewalk Chalk, Measuring Tape and Stop Watches