Centers of Triangles: New Amusement Park

A developer plans to build an amusement park but wants to locate it within easy access of the three largest towns. The developer has to decide on the best location and is working with an construction company to minimize costs wherever possible. No matter where the amusement park is located, roads will have to be built for access directly to the towns or to the existing highways.

I gave students the option of choosing their own map or using a pre-selected map. I chose two other towns around Schuyler to make it more meaningful.

Most students chose Columbus and David City for their other points.

In the task students will determine the location for an amusement park by finding the centers of a triangle. The centers will be new to the students but not the constructions. Make sure students remember the significance of points on the perpendicular bisector of a segment (equidistant from the endpoints of the segment) and the points on an angle bisector (equidistant from the sides of the angle). As students work through the tasks and present their solutions to the class make sure they emphasize the name of the center found, how it was found, and its significance. 

 Students did an excellent job of finding the altitudes, perpendicular bisectors, medians, and angle bisectors. This was a great activity to get students to see the interest and real-world applications of central tendency of triangles.

Find more here: Centers of Triangles Lesson