The next step was to design a vehicle that could successfully traverse the landscape without getting stuck or, worse yet, falling over. The students tried rovers with different numbers of wheels, rovers of varying heights and widths, and rovers with different kinds of traction. After each test, design changes were made until the final working model was built. The last step was to create a computer program to actually make the system run. Student Activity Discover how changing the scale of a map can either increase or decrease the level of detail you see.
Maps are really models of a place in space.
In most cases, when contour maps are made, the scale that is selected for the contour interval is proportional to the scale used to show distance across the map. In this activity, you'll discover what happens when you change the map scale but try to keep the contour interval the same. Use your ruler and pencil to mark off a 20-cm square on the topographic map. Take the first piece of paper and draw a 10-cm square. The object is to recreate all of the same contour lines that appear in the square on the topographic map by drawing them in the square on the paper.