Artifact
Entry Event: Only the first half of this video of some between-innings entertainment, like so:
(Editor’s note: I had to grab the video via a screencast, which doesn’t have the greatest resolution. If anyone can download the video directly, please let me know how. (See update below))
Suggested Questions:
- Who wins, the regular guy or the guy in the squirrel costume?
- How what is the distance of the race?
- What are the dimensions of the field?
Suggested activities:
- Provide students with the video and ask them to develop a mathematical model to describe both runners.
- Graph those models.
- Students will surely need/want to know the length of the race. Provide students with the dimensions of the park. Anyone know the width each of those little striped grasses?
Solution
Of course, the resolution of the story, the full video.
Update 1/24
Dane made a great 3-Act version of this activity, with better video capture. And made me jealous of his video editing software and acumen.
Update 3/26
I much preferred the video version that Dane procured, however I did like the original broadcast audio a bit better. So I stitched ’em together. What do you think? Like it?
Entry Event (Act 1)
Conclusion (Act 3)
emergent math 
Great idea. Do you know how long the run is? I watched the video and tried to get a sense of the length of the trip. Is it from the 330 mark in right field to the 327 mark in left field? I guess that would give the students a chance of using the pythagorean theorem?
I like this one and think I will try it this year.