History of Sir Cadillac and Detroit

Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (1658–1730) was a French explorer and adventurer in New France, now an area of North America stretching from Eastern Canada in the north to Louisiana in the south.  Rising from a modest beginning in Acadia in 1683 as an explorer, trapper, and a trader of alcohol and furs, he achieved various positions of political importance in the colony.   In 1701, he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the beginnings of modern Detroit, which he commanded until 1710. Between 1710 and 1716 he was the governor of Louisiana, although he did not arrive in that territory until 1713.

During his last visit to the land that is now the city of Detroit, he buried some treasure that he collected during his journeys around the area.  You as archeologists are responsible for finding the location of the treasure based on the logs of Sir Cadillac that your fellow history scholars (the Physics Students) have just discovered and translated into directions.  Based on these directions, you will find the treasure and claim the treasure for the local museum.

Team Jobs

The class is divided into their assigned teams (4 – 5 individuals depending on class overall size) and the team member roles are as follows:

Archeologists

Map maker:  Creates a mapping of Sir Cadillac's path on a Google Map of the city using Google Sketch Up and the path and stage waypoints defined by the Mathematician and uploaded by the Team Leader.

Mathematician:  Calculates the waypoint location coordinates of each stage of Sir Cadillac's journey based on the translation of the directions done by the Translator. Calculates the stages' and total distance traveled by Sir Cadillac during his journey.  Calculates the treasure's location relative to your team's school location.  Organizes the information so that the Team Leader can upload this information into the applicable worksheet.

Translator:  Acquires map directions from the history scholar's team page on the Physics Lab Blog. Translates the history scholar's directions into Cartesian displacements that the Mathematician can use to do the necessary calculations. 

Team Leader:  Provides instruction to the archeologist team and is the communicator with the physics students during their solving of the Scavenger Hunt.  The team leader also uploads all the necessary information and files into their team's folder in Google Documents.

Tasks

You are playing the role of the archaeologist who will locate the path to and location of the Sir Cadillac's Treasure based on the directions that the history scholars (the Physics Students) have translated and provided you.  As the archaeologists your responsibility is to:

• Participate in a lesson given by the history scholars regarding the Pythagorean Theorem of which you will need to use in order to solve this problem.
• Acquire the directions of each stage of Sir Cadillac's path, of which the history scholars (Physics Students) have translated for you, that you will need to follow in order to find the location of the treasure.
• Communicate with your history scholar (Physics Students) to ask questions regarding their directions and provide updates to them on your status.
• Determine the coordinates of the six waypoints of Sir Cadillac's path to his treasure, as well as, the coordinates of the location of his treasure. Calculate the distance of each of the six stages of the path and the total distance to the treasure using the Pythagorean Theorem.
• Overlay on a map of the city, the path and its waypoints that you determined based on the directions from the history scholars (Physics Students).

Process

Group Process for this Lab:

1. Each team will divide into their assigned groups.
2. Each team decides which team members are assigned to which roles (see Team Roles) for this activity. The team leader enters the names of the persons assigned to each roles in their team's blog page.
3. The team participates in a lesson about the Pythagorean Theorem that is given by your Physics Student mentors via a Skype session. The team leader downloads the Guided Notes for the lesson from your Physics Student mentor's Google Documents folder. Team completes Guided Notes during lesson and team leader uploads to their team's Google Documents folder.
4. The team's Translator acquires the translated directions created by the history scholars (the Physics Students) from that Physics team's blog page.
5. The Translator translates those directions into side lengths of right triangles (six...for each stage of the path) that the Mathematician will use to perform the necessary calculations. 
6. The team's Mathematician will calculate the path's waypoint Cartesian coordinates and path stage distances based on the information from the team's Translator.
7. The Mathematician will organize the waypoint and distance information so that the Team Leader can enter it into the team's worksheet located in the team's Google Documents folder.
8. The Map Maker draws and overlays on a current map of the city the six waypoints and the path as defined by the Mathematician's calculations in step 7 using Google Maps and Google Sketch. The Map Maker connects the path's waypoints by drawing arrows on the map in between the waypoints and pointed in the direction of travel.  
9. The Team Leader uploads and submits the Map Maker's map to the team's Google Documents folder so that the Physics Students can check it for correctness.
10. The Team Leader communicates with the Physics Team Mentor regarding answering their team's questions and providing updates on their progress in solving the problem via the comment posts on the Math team's blog page.

Evaluation (Rubric)

The team will be graded on the Team's, as a whole, performance to the lab's deliverables as stated in the Rubric.