Source: Cyberchase: “Interpreting Change in Line Graphs”
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In this video segment from Cyberchase, Digit is held captive on Hacker’s ship, The Grim Wreaker. The CyberSquad tracks the Wreaker's movements, and they chart the distance it has traveled over a period of time on two line graphs. After they analyze the graphs, the CyberSquad realizes that the new speed at which Hacker is traveling means he has created portals throughout Cyberspace.
Download and ShareHere are some Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions for using this video in a math lesson.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame: If you wanted to create a graph to keep track of the movements of a pet turtle, how would you set up the graph? What units might you put on the vertical and horizontal axes? If the turtle was moving really quickly what might the line on the graph look like? How about if it were moving really slowly?
Focus: In this video segment, the CyberSquad analyzes two graphs. What information do the graphs display? What does each graph reveal about Hacker’s travels in his ship? How do the results of the first graph differ from the second graph?
Follow Up: What does Matt mean when he talks about the slope of the line? What does the line look like when Hacker’s ship is traveling at its fastest? What does the line look like when the ship is stopped?
MATT: What's the story? What's the graph telling us?
JACKIE: First of all, this scale shows the distance in cybermiles. And the time is marked along here.
MATT: So Digit's graph tells us how far the Wreaker traveled from the Northern Frontier in how much time. Right?
INEZ: Exactly! The Wreaker left the Northern Frontier at one...and stopped someplace at three. But where?
JACKIE: Well in 2 hours, it traveled two hundred cybermiles.
MATT: Sounds like normal speed for the Wreaker...
JACKIE: But look here.
JACKIE: The line's flat between three and five. The distance didn't change!
INEZ: Three to five - that's when the power went out at Radopolis. Maybe they stopped and plugged in the statue there.
MATT: One Hacker statue on Radopolis, 200 cybermiles from the Northern Frontier!
INEZ: After the set up, they must have traveled back ...to the Northern Frontier, covering the same distance at the same speed...and stayed there for two hours.
JACKIE: Probably loading another statue!
INEZ: Right! Then they went a hundred cybermiles in one hour and stopped again. See how the line levels out at ten o'clock?
MATT: That's when the power went out in Poddleville! I bet they planted another sculpture!
INEZ: If we're right, Hacker's got sculptures on Radopolis and Poddleville as well as all these other sites.
JACKIE: But why?
DIGIT: Another statue?! Pretty soon there'll be Hackers all over cyberspace!
DIGIT: What am I gonna do?! My Skwak doesn't work...I can't reach the kids...it's just me against The Hacker!
DIGIT: I gotta find out what he's up to!
DIGIT: Maybe there's somethin' in here that'll--
BUZZ: That'll what?
HACKER: So, you inquisitive ingrate, you want to know what I'm up to?
DIGIT: I want to know why you have a big pimple on you chin?
HACKER: Huh?!
HACKER: This is not a pimple!
HACKER: This is the key to a scheme that will allow me to move through cyberspace with blinding speed - to take over site after site in the blink of an eye!
BUZZ: Ready, boss.
HACKER: Let the test begin!
DIGIT: I sure hope my ETD is still working!
JACKIE: A new graph! The Wreaker's on the move again!
MATT: And it's going really fast! The line is going straight up.
INEZ: And the graph is tracking in minutes rather than hours like the last one did.
CROWD (Screaming walla!)
INEZ: Look at how steep the line is!
INEZ: The Wreaker just went three hundred cybermiles in less than a minute!
JACKIE: Before, it took The Wreaker an hour just to go a hundred!
HACKER: Yes! The links are working!
MATT: The line flattened out at four hundred. So they must have stopped.
INEZ: Yeah! But less than a minute - then it took off again!
JACKIE: Which is hardly enough time to set up a sculpture.
MATT: So what are they doing?
MATT: Wow! Look at it go!
MATT: Either Digit's tracking device is busted, or something really weird just happened.
INEZ: According to this, the Wreaker traveled to... one-two-three-four sites in almost no time at all.
JACKIE: And returned to the Northern Frontier from a site a thousand cybermiles away...in a single minute! How???
MATT: I don't know! Look at the Wreaker's last trip. The slope of the line shows that it took hours to get from one site to the next.
JACKIE: But look how steep this line is! He traveled all this way in minutes - not hours!
MATT: The Wreaker would have to go thousands of cybermiles a minute to go that fast!
INEZ: And there's no way to travel that fast except by...(Gasp!)
MATT/JACKIE: Portals!
JACKIE: Oh no! Those statues are portals! But how????
MATT: Waitaminute! Those purple dots he used to make his sculptures...
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