Source: Cyberchase: “Return to Sensible Flats”
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A Flooding Threat
(Video)
National K -12 Subject:
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In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad has returned to Sensible Flats, a town whose inhabitants are moving out in droves because the reservoir has run dry. In order to restore water to the town, the CyberSquad collects data and creates a line graph to figure out what happened to the water.
Download and ShareInvestigations/Scott Foresman (2006)
Different Shapes, Equal Pieces
Investigation 1, Session 5: pp. 19-21
Investigation 2, Sessions 3 and 4: pp. 29-37
Investigation 3, Sessions 1 and 2, pp. 41-45
Here are some Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions for using this video in a math lesson.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame: Temperatures change a great deal during the year in most parts of the world. If you had a table of information about your town or city that included the temperature recorded on each day of a particular month and you wanted to examine it for any trends, how might you organize that data so that trends would be easy to see?
Focus: As you watch this segment, notice the two kinds of data the CyberSquad is able to collect about the reservoir. When they have collected this data, think about what they do with it and why?
Follow Up: Once the CyberSquad created the graph with the dates and the water levels, what were they able to find out? What kind of graph did they create? Why would they choose a graph like this?
INEZ: So what's the story, Sheriff?
SHERIFF JUDY: You can see fer yerself, kids...reservoir's plum outa water. Nothin' to send down to the town. Right, Trudy?
JUDGE TRUDY: Right, Judy. No water in the reservoir no water in Sensible Flats. Folks are leavin' in droves.
SHERIFF JUDY: And Hacker's buying up all the land cheap. If we don't find out what happened to the water soon, we'll be a ghost town. Right, Rudy?
RUDY: Right you are, cuz. We're as dry as a bone. Most often the water levels off right about here...At the 18 meter mark.
INEZ: Maybe there's a leak.
RUDY: Nope! No leak. That's the first thing I checked when I saw the water level startin' to drop.
JACKIE: When did the water start dropping?
RUDY: Well, it's hard to say exactly. One day I realized it was lower than ever before and it just kept droppin', till it got to where you see it today.
MATT: Do you have any records, RUDY:? If you kept track of the water level, it might tell us a story about what happened.
RUDY: You want records? I'll show you records..last 25 days' worth! See here? All specified and writified. The day of Betty Lou's weddin' the water level was 17 meters.
SHERIFF JUDY: And on Milk A Cow Win A Chicken Day, the level was 16.
JUDGE TRUDY: It was 13 the day Bubba came down with shin splints.
INEZ: But these measurements don't help unless we know the date each measurement was taken.
RUDY: Dates? Why didn't you say so? Got 'em all right here...day one through 25!
JACKIE: There's got to be a way to organize this stuff.
INEZ: How can we use the dates to tell us the story?
MATT: Well, we could make a graph to show how the water level changes day by day!
JACKIE: And we can use the side of the tank to mark it! Okay, Rudy, let's see what the story is. What was the water level on the first day of the month?
RUDY: Let's see...day one...18 meters. Same day the chicken house caught fire. Never forget that day.
MATT: Day one...18 meters!
DIGIT: 18 meters...marked!
RUDY: Day two...17 meters.
INEZ: 17 meters, Didge!
DIGIT: 17 meters...marked!
SHERIFF JUDY: Hate to interrupt a good story, but what do all those criss crossy lines mean?
JACKIE: These numbers we wrote down here are the days of the month. And those numbers...tell us the water levels in meters.
RUDY: I know that! I painted those numbers myself!
MATT: And the lines that criss-cross each other make a grid. They show information in a way that you can understand it.
INEZ: What was the water level on Day 3, Rudy?
RUDY: Lost my harmonica that day...never did find it....
JACKIE: 18 meters, Didge!
DIGIT: 18 meters...marked!
RUDY: So what's the story? All I see is a buncha dots!
JUDGE TRUDY: Rudy's right, buckos. That there graph of yours doesn't tell us a thing.
MATT: That's because we're not finished.
INEZ: To see the big picture, we need to connect the dots. Go for it, Didge!
DIGIT: D-dots all, folks!
MATT: There you are, folks...our graph!
JACKIE: But not just any old graph you're looking at a line graph! It gives a picture of how the water level changes over time.
RUDY: Well, I'll be! There's a story there after all!
SHERIFF JUDY: Sure 'nuf. First 6 days of the month, everything was hunky dory. Water level stayed pretty much the same.
JUDGE TRUDY: But lookee what happened sometime around the 7th day. The line starts droppin'. Water took a nose dive!
JACKIE: So there's the story! Something majorly changed around the seventh! But what?
MATT: Maybe somebody started using a lot more water than usual.
SHERIFF JUDY: Can't be! Everyone in Sensible Flats gets the same amount of water as everyone else.
RUDY: Which is a big fat zero, right now!
INEZ: Anything else happen around the seventh?
JUDGE TRUDY: Come to think of it something did happen. That landnappin' scoundrel Hacker showed his pointy chin around here again!
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