This summer the new teaching and learning health clinic construction meant that the route usually used for finding the conversion factor between arcminutes and meters was blocked and unusable. The fence prevented the use of a line of latitude of sufficient length. Exploring in Google Earth suggested that the east side of the gym might be East 158° 09.400' From there a line of longitude around North 6° 54.595' might slide past the northeast corner of the bookstore and then make it through the east gate of the half-moon drive. That meant starting at the gym on the west end of campus. The laboratory would start at 11:30 but the laboratory would have to end by 1:00 today due to a presentation in MITC. This meant that the laboratory had to pilot a new route on a rainy day under time constraints.
The solution was to move the laboratory introduction into the morning lecture. But that meant Finding Binky would have to be assured of ending fairly early and not too far from A101.
Binky was wrapped in a black plastic bag and tucked into the cycad at the above coordinates based on GPS essentials on my Moto G60. The handheld GPS units, which at this point seem less accurate than a good cell phone GPS, put the students a couple meters to the northwest of the cycad. To put them in the cycad might have perhaps required using North 6° 54.543', East 158° 09.611'. This stumped the students for a while until A-Ann realized that the coordinates were only a general location and became searching in the cycad. In some sense, they were fortunate to be the same side as Binky and she eventually found Binky.
At the start of class only the coordinates on the left side above were on the board. All three pairs of coordinates are the location of Binky. No one had a decimal degree display this term, not that I saw. The iPhone Compass app can only display the degrees, minutes, and seconds format. There is a premium pay mode that may open up other options.
At the start students stood around, unclear that moving was necessary. One students appeared to hold the belief that the numbers could change if one waited. Perhaps I had gone too light on the discovery aspect and failed to make clear this was a search and rescue driven operation.
A-Ann and Marmayon use iPhones along with a GPS to find Binky.
Fancylynn studies a handheld GPS receiver
A-Ann with an iPhone.
Location services must be turned on for Compass to operate. Compass did not appear to request that location services be turned on and in the default mode Compass only shows the compass rose and direction.
Darx was under the building roof and this led to inconsistent position data.
The class spent some time milling around in front of the classroom, not walking far enough to get a feel for the direction in which the coordinates would change, up or down.
Fancylynn and Anayva
Gradually the class started to move apart.
Marmayon
Many started by heading to the east.
Here Marmayon has gone south, which helps with the latitude coordinate
At some point Marmayon and A-Ann realized that the latitude would hold steady if they walked west, and that brought down the longitude values. They were the first into the vicinity of Binky.
The complication was that the place they are standing is correct according to the coordinates.
A-Ann with Marmayon
They are at the correct coordinates, but no Binky. Eventually Fancylyn, Anayva, Benalyne, and Joanalynn would arrive at the same location. Ivan and Cordny remained under the covered walkway and did not leave the sidewalk. Darx also worked the sidewalk. None of the male students ventured onto the grass. The navigators today were all female.
As group they decided to search the cycad. A-Ann happened to be the one searching the side with Binky and realized that the black plastic bag was Binky. I had not mentioned that, having only shown an image of Binky on the SMARTboard.
The location did mean that the hunt ended earlier than in prior terms, and ended near A101. Upon return I added the globe on the right.
Then I laid out the laboratory table and structure. I noted that I was not sure we could get to 158° 09.400', but that we would meet at the gym and hope for the best.
The weather was far from cooperative with rain bands coming off the ridge.
The gym provided minimal but functional shelter.
WiFi was also weak and inconsistent at this location. The building also blocked and echoed GPS signals, so position information was skittering up and down for everyone.
At 11:39 a short break in the rain had us head east on the North 6° 54.595' line of latitude. The Tripltek compass would prove inconsistent and biased. I would eventually turn navigation over to A-Ann who had an iPhone that was clearly more accurate than the Tripltek. The Tripltek would have turned us too far to the north of east. The first stop was at 30 meters, which was on the west edge of the parking lot.
The first stop takes time because I have to explain why I am entering 0.016 instead of 158° 09.416' By the time everyone was up to speed, another rain band had arrived. I opted to simply walk to the bookstore corner for shelter and take the next reading there. The bookstore was 164 meters from our start and 0.091 arcminutes.
Although the rain had stopped, I knew I had a 1:00 deadline and more rain was sure to arrive. So I pushed east. The trek basically threads the needle at the east end of the driveway. A small jog in the path puts one outside the fence. The only obstacle proved to be a recently arrived pile of coral. At 1400 feet on the measuring wheel, 427 meters, the class made a fourth and final measurement. This line represented the longest track since the terms when we walked from BurBen spot to the gym.
The view back to the opening in the fence and on back along the line of latitude we had walked.
Back in A101 I used the SMARTboard to demonstrate the equation.
A few end of lab notes.
Plus a quick note on the upcoming summer solstice.
Overall the new route worked and worked well. The complication during a regular term would be the same complication as I ran into this summer. With the start at the gym, the introduction is better done during the class before. In the regular term that happens on a Wednesday. Hide and seek, however, ends out in the field in some obscure location. The line is a good line to walk, long and clear. Despite the rain, not too soggy underfoot. Solving where the preliminary briefing occurs is the one remaining conundrum.
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