Loci

4. Lateral thinking

Required Resources

• Slide 8
• Student Worksheet 4

Delivery

• The teams' final activity is a race against the clock. Each team must race to identify the exact coordinates of a group of walkers before the weather closes in. One of the walkers has suffered a severe injury and it is imperative that he is helicoptered out within 2 hours. However if the weather worsens this will not be possible.
• Invite teams to use their lateral thinking skills and all the information available to them when solving this puzzle. Explain that time is short and they should not send a team out unless they can be fairly confident in their findings. Encourage students to think about the human application of their findings, i.e. to consider the implications for the rescue team (e.g. the terrain or other landscape features).
• Set the scene and ask students to consider what information they have available to them:
  • a. The team left rough details of their heading and planned activity with the local Mountaineering Office. Leaving location A at 1000 hours, they planned to reach location B by 1600 hours. It is now 1300 hours.
  • b. One walker appears to be wearing a radio device that is transmitting to a local radio mast 1 indicating that he is exactly 2000m away.
  • c. Mast 2 is also receiving a transmission. It is weaker, however and experts estimate that walker 2 must be within 3km of it.
  • d. The map appears to indicate a deep river that the walkers might have found difficult to cross. Students should think about the implications that this might have had on the route the men took. Students should take care to ensure that they use the same scale for both loci constructed from the mast transmissions.
• The final activity requires a little lateral thinking. Students pinpoint the stranded individual's location. You should inform them however that when the rescuers arrive on the scene this walker is nowhere to be found. Project Image 8 either when a student comes upon a possible answer or if the class is struggling.

Differentiation

Lower Ability:

Students may need to be coached through this multi-step problem solving activity.
Slower or less confident students may wish to tackle the first part of each question only.

Higher Ability:

Brainstorm other information the RAF Mountain Rescue Team might be able to obtain that would permit them to pinpoint individuals with more accuracy.