Anyone have some ideas?

[michelle06]

Is Alg 3 the 3rd semester? Here we have Alg 1 (1st year) and Alg 2 (2nd year).

How about plotting wait times on a scatterplot (she can note them as she roams the park and then do this when she has downtime). Then she can make a best fit line to determine average wait times at different times during the day. So, the x-axis could be the time of day and the y-axis the wait time. For further analysis, she could do this for all 4 parks and see if she notices that wait times are considerably lower or higher at a particular park.

 

[g-dad66]

Could she calculate the number of guests that a ride can accommodate per day, based upon (1) how long it takes her from the time getting on the ride to getting off the ride, and (2) the number of guests on her vehicle/coaster/etc.?

This could give those of us obsessed with calculating likely daily FP+ allocations for a particular ride some new data to play with (assuming you might report back her on her research results...)

 

[Ametista]

You could have her calculate the actual cost per ride based on a one day ticket price, 3 day, 5 day, etc and actual wait times ( have her take pics of the wait times for each ride). Then she could determine the "cost" of each line/ride and then you could publish it on here and we could all use it as a guide called "Is it worth it?" for instance Space Mountain probably has a very high cost and IASW not so much, but it would be fun to look at a graph comparing actual cost.

I have never felt that people value their vacation time on a monetary basis, as in, I am worth 100 dollars an hour, so I will not sit through a time share that takes 2 hours and rewards me with tickets to a show worth $75. Vacation time should be the most expensive/worth more than any other time of the year.

 

[dayvewc]

Is Alg 3 the 3rd semester? Here we have Alg 1 (1st year) and Alg 2 (2nd year).

How about plotting wait times on a scatterplot (she can note them as she roams the park and then do this when she has downtime). Then she can make a best fit line to determine average wait times at different times during the day. So, the x-axis could be the time of day and the y-axis the wait time. For further analysis, she could do this for all 4 parks and see if she notices that wait times are considerably lower or higher at a particular park.

It's a third year Algebra course. And expansion on the topics from Alg. 1 and 2, but not quite to a level of College Algebra.

But I'm loving your idea. Rather than just a line of best fit, try to find an equation (parabolic, power, exponential / logarithmic, etc.) of best fit. With the multiple park comparisons. Thanks !!

 

[jkluttrell]

I teach high school math too!

This is more Geometry and not Algebra but I do a project each year where I give them a list of Geometric terms (point, plane, parallelogram, rectangular prism, etc) and they have to take a picture of that in real life. Then they put in all in a powerpoint or booklet, write the definition for each, etc. Maybe for Algebra you could do conic sections. That would be so fun (and simple) to do in WDW!

But for Algebra there are all kinds of things you could have her make graphs, charts, tables and do statistics for. Scatter plots would be easy too with the line of best fit.

And I'm with the no assignment while on vacation but if she asked for it and it will count as her 'make-up work' then she might like it.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

OP - I think it's great that you're trying to think of alternate WDW-related assignments for this student. However, she will still be missing a week of your planned curriculum. Would it be more advantageous to her if you tell her what the class will be working on in her absence so that she'll be prepared when a test comes around? Perhaps she can photocopy the assigned pages from the textbook and work on mastering the concepts while she's gone. I wouldn't necessarily tell her she has to work through every problem or even turn in any work. But I would tell her she should work on the material in an effort to keep up with the class.