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  • Penny Axelrad
By Land, Sea or Air
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
By Land, Sea or Air
Rating

In this lesson, students learn that navigational techniques change when people travel to different places land, sea, air and in space. For example, an explorer traveling by land uses different methods of navigation than a sailor or an astronaut.

Subject:
Engineering
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Denise Carlson
Denise W. Carlson
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
Classroom Triangles
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Educational Use
Classroom Triangles
Rating

Students use bearing measurements to triangulate and determine objects' locations. Working in teams of two or three, they must put on their investigative hats as they take bearing measurements to specified landmarks in their classroom (or other rooms in the school) from a "mystery location." With the extension activity, students are challenged with creating their own maps of the classroom or other school location and comparing them with their classmates' efforts.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Computer Accuracy
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Educational Use
Computer Accuracy
Rating

Accuracy of measurement in navigation depends very much on the situation. If a sailor's target is an island 200 km wide, sailing off center by 10 or 20 km is not a major problem. But, if the island were only 1 km wide, it would be missed if off just the smallest bit. Many of the measurements made while navigating involve angles, and a small error in the angle can translate to a much larger error in position when traveling long distances.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Find Your Own Direction
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Educational Use
Find Your Own Direction
Rating

Students create their own simple compasses using thread, needle and water in a bowl and learn how it works.

Subject:
Engineering
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Abby Watrous
Janet Yowell
Jay Shah
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
GPS Receiver Basics
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
GPS Receiver Basics
Rating

Students familiarize themselves — through trial and error — with the basics of GPS receiver operation. They view a receiver's satellite visibility screen as they walk in various directions and monitor their progress on the receiver's map. Students may enter waypoints and use the GPS information to guide them back to specific locations.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lundberg
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
GPS Scavenger Hunt
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
GPS Scavenger Hunt
Rating

Students go on a GPS scavenger hunt. They use GPS receivers to find designated waypoints and report back on what they found. They compute distances between waypoints based on the latitude and longitude, and compare with the distance the receiver finds.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lundberg
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
GPS on the Move
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
GPS on the Move
Rating

During a scavenger hunt and an art project, students learn how to use a handheld GPS receiver for personal navigation. Teachers can request assistance from the Institute of Navigation to find nearby members with experience in using GPS and in locating receivers to use.

Subject:
Engineering
Ecology
Forestry and Agriculture
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lundberg
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
Getting it Right!
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Getting it Right!
Rating

In this lesson, students will investigate error. As shown in earlier activities from navigation lessons 1 through 3, without an understanding of how errors can affect your position, you cannot navigate well. Introducing accuracy and precision will develop these concepts further. Also, students will learn how computers can help in navigation. Often, the calculations needed to navigate accurately are time consuming and complex. By using the power of computers to do calculations and repetitive tasks, one can quickly see how changing parameters likes angles and distances and introducing errors will affect their overall result.

Subject:
Engineering
Mathematics
Geometry
Trigonometry
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
Getting to the Point
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Educational Use
Getting to the Point
Rating

In this lesson, students learn how to determine location by triangulation. We describe the process of triangulation and practice finding your location on a worksheet, in the classroom, and outdoors.

Subject:
Engineering
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
How to be a Great Navigator!
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Educational Use
How to be a Great Navigator!
Rating

In this lesson, students will learn how great navigators of the past stayed on course that is, the historical methods of navigation. The concepts of dead reckoning and celestial navigation are discussed.

Subject:
Engineering
Mathematics
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
It's About Time
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
It's About Time
Rating

In past times, ocean navigators tossed a piece of wood over the side of their ships and noted how long until the ship passed the wood. They used this time measurement and the length of the ship to calculate their speed and estimate how far they had traveled. In this activity, students act the part of a GPS signal traveling to the receiver to learn how travel time is converted to distance.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Nautical Navigation
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Nautical Navigation
Rating

In this activity, students explore the importance of charts to navigation on bodies of water. Using one worksheet, students learn to read the major map features found on a real nautical chart. Using another worksheet, students draw their own nautical chart using the symbols and identifying information learned.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Denise Carlson
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Navigating at the Speed of Satellites
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Navigating at the Speed of Satellites
Rating

For thousands of years, navigators have looked to the sky for direction. Today, celestial navigation has simply switched from using natural objects to human-created satellites. A constellation of satellites, called the Global Positioning System, and hand-held receivers allow for very accurate navigation. In this lesson, students investigate the fundamental concepts of GPS technology trilateration and using the speed of light to calculate distances.

Subject:
Engineering
Astronomy
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
Navigating by the Numbers
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Navigating by the Numbers
Rating

In this lesson, students will learn that math is important in navigation and engineering. Ancient land and sea navigators started with the most basic of navigation equations (Speed x Time = Distance). Today, navigational satellites use equations that take into account the relative effects of space and time. However, even these high-tech wonders cannot be built without pure and simple math concepts basic geometry and trigonometry that have been used for thousands of years. In this lesson, these basic concepts are discussed and illustrated in the associated activities.

Subject:
Engineering
Mathematics
Geometry
Trigonometry
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
Nidy-Gridy
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Nidy-Gridy
Rating

Normally we find things using landmark navigation. When you move to a new place, it may take you awhile to explore the new streets and buildings, but eventually you recognize enough landmarks and remember where they are in relation to each other. However, another accurate method for locating places and things is using grids and coordinates. In this activity, students will come up with their own system of a grid and coordinates for their classroom and understand why it is important to have one common method of map-making.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
The North (Wall) Star
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
The North (Wall) Star
Rating

Celestial navigation is the art and science of finding one's geographic position by means of astronomical observations, particularly by measuring altitudes of celestial objects sun, moon, planets or stars. This activity starts with a basic, but very important and useful, celestial measurement: measuring the altitude of Polaris (the North Star) or measuring the latitude.

Subject:
Engineering
Physical Geography
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Northward Ho!
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Educational Use
Northward Ho!
Rating

Students create and use their own simple compasses, which are each made from a bowl of water, strong magnet, stick pin and Styrofoam peanuts. They learn how compasses work and about cardinal directions. They come to understand that the Earth's magnetic field has both horizontal and vertical components.

Subject:
Engineering
Physical Geography
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Not So Lost in Space
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Not So Lost in Space
Rating

Students learn how engineers navigate satellites in orbit around the Earth and on their way to other planets in the solar system. In accompanying activities, they explore how ground-based tracking and onboard measurements are performed. Also provided is an overview of orbits and spacecraft trajectories from Earth to other planets, and how spacecraft are tracked from the ground using the Deep Space Network (DSN). DSN measurements are the primary means for navigating unmanned vehicles in space. Onboard spacecraft instruments might include optical sensors and an inertial measurement unit (IMU).

Subject:
Engineering
Astronomy
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
A Roundabout Way to Mars
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Educational Use
A Roundabout Way to Mars
Rating

Students explore orbit transfers and, specifically, Hohmann transfers. They investigate the orbits of Earth and Mars by using cardboard and string. Students learn about the planets' orbits around the sun, and about a transfer orbit from one planet to the other. After the activity, students will know exactly what is meant by a delta-v maneuver!

Subject:
Engineering
Astronomy
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Satellite Tracker
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Satellite Tracker
Rating

Students use satellite tracking software available on the Internet to monitor a very large satellite, the International Space Station. Using information from this online resource, students predict and graph the motion of the space station at their location and create a 3-D display of its path through the sky.

Subject:
Engineering
Astronomy
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Sextant Solutions
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Sextant Solutions
Rating

The earliest explorers did not have computers or satellites to help them know their exact location. The most accurate tool developed was the sextant to determine latitude and longitude. In this activity, the sextant is introduced and discussed with the class. Students will learn how a sextant can be a reliable tool that is still being used by today's navigators and how computers can help assure accuracy when measuring angles. Also, this activity will show how computers can be used to understand equations even when knowing how to do the math is unknown.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
State Your Position
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
State Your Position
Rating

To navigate, you must know roughly where you stand relative to your designation, so you can head in the right direction. In locations where landmarks are not available to help navigate (in deserts, on seas), objects in the sky are the only reference points. While celestial objects move fairly predictably, and rough longitude is not too difficult to find, it is not a simple matter to determine latitude and precise positions. In this activity, students investigate the uses and advantages of modern GPS for navigation.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Stay in Shape
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Stay in Shape
Rating

Students learn that math is important in navigation and engineering. They learn about triangles and how they can help determine distances. Ancient land and sea navigators started with the most basic of navigation equations (speed x time = distance). Today, navigational satellites use equations that take into account the relative effects of space and time. However, even these high-tech wonders cannot be built without pure and simple math concepts — basic geometry and trigonometry — that have been used for thousands of years.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Topo Map Mania!
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Topo Map Mania!
Rating

Maps are designed to allow people to travel to a new location without a guide to show the way. They tell us information about areas to which we may or may not have ever been. There are many types of maps available for both recreational and professional use. A navigator uses a nautical map, while an engineer might use a surveyor's map. Maps are created by cartographers, and they can be very specific or very general, depending on their intended use. The focus of this lesson is on how to read and use topographical maps. Students will also learn to identify the common features of a map. Through the associated activities, students will learn how to use a compass to find bearing to an object on a map and in the classroom.

Subject:
Engineering
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess
Topo Triangulation
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Educational Use
Topo Triangulation
Rating

In this activity, students will learn how to read a topographical map and how to triangulate with just a map. True triangulation requires both a map and compass, but to simplify the activity and make it possible indoors, the compass information is given. Students will practice converting a compass measurement to a protractor measurement, as well as reverse a bearing direction (i.e., if they know a tree's bearing is 100 degrees from you, they can determine what bearing they are from the tree). Students will use the accompanying worksheets to take a bearing of certain landmarks and then start at those landmarks to work backwards to figure out where they are.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Topos, Compasses, and Triangles, Oh My!
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Educational Use
Topos, Compasses, and Triangles, Oh My!
Rating

In this activity, students will learn how to actually triangulate using a compass, topographical (topo) map and view of outside landmarks. It is best if a field trip to another location away from school is selected. The location should have easily discernable landmarks (like mountains or radio towers) and changes in elevation (to illustrate the topographical features) to enhance the activity. A national park is an ideal location, and visiting a number of parks, especially parks with hiking trails, is especially beneficial.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Trig River
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Educational Use
Trig River
Rating

Students learn about and use a right triangle to determine the width of a "pretend" river. Working in teams, they estimate of the width of the river, measure it and compare their results with classmates.

Subject:
Engineering
Trigonometry
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/26/2008
MoreLess
The Trouble with Topos
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
The Trouble with Topos
Rating

Students learn how to identify the major features in a topographical map. They learn that maps come in a variety of forms: city maps, road maps, nautical maps, topographical maps, and many others. Map features reflect the intended use. For example, a state map shows cities, major roads, national parks, county lines, etc. A city map shows streets and major landmarks for that city, such as hospitals and parks. Topographical maps help navigate the wilderness by showing the elevation, mountains, peaks, rivers and trails.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Where Is Your Teacher?
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Where Is Your Teacher?
Rating

Students learn how to take bearings using orienteering compasses. They also learn how to describe a bearing and find an object in the classroom using a bearing.

Subject:
Education
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
10/14/2015
MoreLess
Where is Here?
Read the Fine Print
Educational Use
Where is Here?
Rating

In this lesson, students are shown the very basics of navigation. The concepts of relative and absolute location, latitude, longitude and cardinal directions are discussed, as well as the use and principles of a map and compass.

Subject:
Engineering
Physical Geography
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Lesson Plan
Provider:
TeachEngineering
Provider Set:
TeachEngineering
Author:
Janet Yowell
Jeff White
Malinda Schaefer Zarske
Matt Lippis
Penny Axelrad
Date Added:
09/18/2014
MoreLess