Step 5: Create Your Course
Using tape and the scaled sketch of your race course, create a full size version of the course in the area you originally measured. Pay close attention to the scale that you chose for your drawing and use a meter stick or ruler to ensure the full size version of your course matches the dimensions of the scaled version you created in your engineering notebook.
Respond to the questions below in your engineering notebook:
- What was the most difficult part when creating a full sized version of the course from your scaled version? Why?
- What strategies did you use to determine if your measurements were accurate? How did you come up with them?
Teacher Toolbox
Students are likely to report that the most difficult part in creating a full-sized version of the course based on the scaled version is the need for precise measurements. This experience should highlight human errors in taking measurements, especially when a measurement is only carried out once.
For planning purposes, one way to reduce measurement errors is to measure more than once and average the measurements taken across those multiple attempts. This way your longest and shortest measurements, which might both be inaccurate, are adjusted to a more likely accurate value.