Lunch and Learn math program measures motion

Bill and Marilyn Handy work on a motion sensing problem at Lunch and Learn class. Photo by Conrad Weiler

Math professors Jack McCown and Doug Nelson presented a fitting conclusion to Central Oregon Community College's fall Lunch and Learn program last month.

Providing student pairs with motion sensors connected with Texas Instruments 83-plus graphing calculators, they challenged the class with problems in detecting and measuring movement and velocity.

The first and easier task was to detect motion by using the various stored 'Ranger' program graphs and trying to duplicate as closely as possible the motion patterns. One member of the pair would monitor the calculator screen as the other moved toward or away from a solid wall.

The screen recording displayed meters on the y-axis (vertical) and seconds on the x-axis (horizontal). A live graph would be drawn on the same screen as the test graph and students tried to duplicate that pattern with their movements.

Students had to 'learn' which way to move and how fast in order to duplicate the stored pattern. A discussion of slope angles and measuring movement patterns followed.

The second problem was measuring velocity using the same tools but the problem was more difficult because acceleration by the person with the sensor was critical in trying to match stored calculator patterns.

Again, meters were graphed against time and students had to learn how fast or slow to move to match the stored velocity pattern. Part of the difficulty was learning that continuous movement was necessary to match the graph.

Harry Orr expressed the general student consensus when he said, "I sure wish they taught math this way when I went to school."

This highly successful program brought together enthusiastic math professors from Bend's COCC campus and an equally enthusiastic group of adult students from the Sisters area.