Calculate the straight line distance (displacement) from the shotput on the DemoDesk to my mailbox in the front office.
That's it. Plain and simple. The catch? Our building is sorta circular / hexagonal in shape, my lab room is in the rear of the building on the 2nd floor and the front office is in the front of the building on the 1st floor, there's a courtyard between us the kids are forbidden to enter for this activity, and they HAVE to show all work. Hmmm. Let's see.
This is an exercise in 3-D vectors. The kids, in groups, of course, must put several vectors together in 2-D at once, usually all on the 2nd floor, let's call that the x-y plane, to form a side of a vector triangle to be used in the x-z plane. Most kids must take about 20 linear measurements including angles then put them together to form a final resultant. Lots-O-Work.
NOTE TO MY KIDS; Read NO Further Than HERE... The really clever ones will track down a blueprint of the building available in the front office for visitors - a small map of both floors - measure to scale and pop the solution.