This task begins with an animated video clip showing a cat jumping into the road, and a car nearly hitting it, which motivates a framing question: Can the driver stop in time? This sets the context for a whole-class brainstorm about what quantities might need to be considered in order to answer the question. Students work on the problem individually first and then in pairs or small groups. The central mathematics of the problem includes figuring out that there is a linear relationship between time and distance that can be modeled with the given speed and ‘reaction time’, and then figuring out how to model the more complicated relationship between speed and distance, given a table of data; this can be approached in several mathematically valid ways.
They select a formula and several graphs or diagrams from their research and/or from their own work on the problem and create a poster that illustrates the relationship between their chosen formula and their chosen graphs or diagrams.
The final individual product is to write a recommendation about guidelines for ‘following distance’. Students first analyze the guidelines published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the New York DMV, which are inconsistent, and use the mathematics of stopping distance to justify their recommendation about which state’s guidelines are more appropriate.
