Lesson: Following Motion

Field Museum Extensions

  1. Related Exhibitions.
  2. Africa. An investigation of this exhibit gives students an opportunity to apply the basic kinetics equation xf-xi = vt, not as an exercise, but intuitively, as they explore interesting landscapes of this vast continent. The beginning of the exhibit asks the question: How big is Africa? A map showing the countries of India, Europe, the U.S., China, and Argentina lying within the boundaries of Africa will prompt some thinking about the number of different landscapes, cultures, languages, and climates of such a large land mass. The distances that must be traveled, the time it would take to travel these distances, and the speed required to efficiently travel from one country to another will reinforce the exhibit’s theme that Africa is an enormous, ecologically and culturally rich place.

This exercise gives students a chance to improve their map-reading skills and their ability to measure carefully as they attempt to answer the questions: How far is it from here to there? How long will it take to get there? How fast can we travel? Distances will be measured from maps located throughout the exhibit. Students can bring a small tape measure or ruler, along with a calculator and their science notebooks, with them to the museum. If available, they should use the map scale and distance key to determine distances from one place to another. Some maps do not have scales or distance keys, however, and students will need to record longitude, latitude, or any location data from the map to use for analysis in the classroom.

For example, just past the entrance of the East African Rift Lakes section, students will find a wall map with questions and lighted locations as part of the answer. (This map has an id plate at the bottom: 19:i3.) This map is an introduction to the rest of the Rift exhibit. Here, students should record the questions and answers, along with any location information available. This map does not have a scale or key, so students should record latitude and longitude as carefully as they can, using the lighted points on the map. Back in the classroom, they should use a global mapping program such as Google Earth (available for free from Google Earth will allow students to pinpoint the locations recorded in their notebooks from the museum map information, read more about the cities and environments from the Rift exhibit, and calculate distances, speeds, and times, using the basic kinematics equation.

Maps in the exhibit that include a distance key and/or a map scale are the city map of Dakar at the entrance to Africa, the map of the Saharan desert, at the end of the Rift section, and the Kano city map in the Sahara section.

Students can use this as a problem-solving activity--with the problem being how to get from one location to another (walk, car, train, plane). Students will need to know how much time they have to visit each location, and then determine the speed they need to travel to be able to visit all of the sites.

If they are investigating the Dakar city map, students should pick interesting points around the city and then determine the distance. Are the points close enough to each other to walk? Do they have enough time to walk? (Assume a comfortable walking speed of 3 miles per hour, or 5 km/h.)

The map at the start of the East African Rift section of the exhibit poses these questions (each question is answered when a door is lifted):

Where is it so hot you can fry an egg on a rock? Answer: The Danakil Depression (also known as the Afar Depression) in Ethiopia. The approximate longitude and latitude: 11.5 N, 41.0 E.

When using Google Earth, students can type in their measured longitude and latitude, but a more exact location can be found by typing in “Afar Depression”. Also, clicking the marker on the Google Earth map at this location will yield information about this area of Ethiopia.

Where can you find the largest animal herd in the world? Answer: The million wildebeests are found in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, at approximately 2.3 S, 34.5 E. (Google Earth location: “Serengeti National Park”)

Where is it summer every day and winter every night? Answer: The high mountains of the Rift, at approximately 0 N, 37.3 E. (Google Earth: “Mt. Kenya”)

Where do the world’s rarest and most intelligent animals live? Answer: The endangered mountain gorillas are found in the Virunga Mountains, at approximately 1.4 S, 29.5 E. (Google Earth: “Virunga Mountains”)

Where do fish build nests? Answer: The African Cichlids of Lake Victoria, Lake Edward, and Lake Tanganyika are found at approximately 1.25 S, 32.75 E for L. Victoria, 0.33 S, 29.75 E for L. Edward, and 6.25 S, 30.33 E for L. Tanganyika. (Google Earth: type “Lake Victoria”, “Lake Edward”, and “Kalemie, Congo”)

Using Google Earth’s ruler button and then selecting “Path”, the students can connect their cities with lines and the program will determine the distances between them. For example, the distance from the Afar Depression to Mt. Kenya is about 850 miles, from Mt. Kenya to Serengeti National Park is about 250 miles, from the Serengeti to Lake Tanganyika is about 400 miles, from Lake Tanganyika to the Virunga Mountains is about 350 miles, from the Virunga Mountains to Lake Edward is about 75 miles, from Lake Edward to Lake Victoria is about 200 miles, and from Lake Victoria to the Afar Depression is about 1050 miles. So the total distance, including the return trip, is about 3175 miles.

How long would the travel time be in a car averaging 50 mph? (Answer: 63.5 hours, nonstop.) How long would the travel time be in a small aircraft averaging 200 mph? (Answer: about 15.9 hours, nonstop.) How long would the travel time be if you walked at about 3 mph? (Answer: about 1058 hours, or about 44 days nonstop.) If you wanted the total flight time to be only 12 hours, how fast would the airplane have to travel? (Answer: about 265 miles per hour.)

As an alternative kinematics study, students could investigate one or more slave ship routes. Students will need to record a starting city (such as Calabar, Nigeria) and a destination (such as Richmond, Virginia). Then, using a map or Google Earth, students can determine the approximate distance of the slave ship route. Ships would average between 10 to 15 mph (4.5 m/s or 16 km/h to 6.7 m/s or 24 km/h). How long would it take to travel the distance? Answer: The estimated distance is 6 500 miles. At 15 mph, the trip would take about 430 hours, or about 18 days. Students should be asked to consider this amount of time in terms of what they have seen in the exhibit. What would life be like on a slave ship for so long? For these two to three weeks, as many as 600 humans would be cramped in quarters so small that they could not sit up straight, and the horrible conditions led to many deaths.

For all of these exercises, students will of course be using the basic kinematics equation, x2 - x1 = vt, to determine the speed or time. However, the equation does not need to be provided. Students will be able to create the equation from common sense.

In addition to improving map-reading skills, students will be using conversion factors to convert centimeters or inches to actual distances in miles or kilometers.

  1. What is an Animal? There are many examples of animals in this exhibit, and students should find a few animals whose average maximum speeds are given in the display. Students should write down the animal and its maximum speed. Then, students can perform a thought process to compare the motion of these animals: if the animals were to be in a 100m race, how long would it take for the fastest animal to cover the distance? Where would the other animals be when the fastest finished?

For example, the Yellow-finned Tuna can travel at 72 kilometers per hour. (Students might want to try converting this to meters per second. Answer: 20 m/s.) The White-lined sphinx moth can travel at 55 kilometers per hour (15.3 m/s). The Sea Star can travel at 1 meter per hour (0.000278 m/s). The fastest animal will cover the distance in 5 s. In that time, the moth will have travelled 76.5m, while the Sea Star will only have travelled 0.00139m.

  1. Evolving Planet –Carboniferous. In this exhibit, there is a map showing the relative positions of the North American continent during the carboniferous period and today. On a piece of paper, students can copy the relative positions of the Mazon Creek locations, then and now, with the goal of measuring the distance between the two locations. Then, using an approximate time elapse of 300 million years, students can calculate an average speed of the North American plate.

Students will have to estimate and record the relative longitude and latitude positions from the map. Greenwich, England is the arbitrary standard for 0 longitude and, of course, the equator is the standard for latitude. These should be the points of reference for the students’ calculations. The Illinois and Mazon Creek area can be estimated to have been about 5 degrees S and about 30 degrees W at some point during the Carboniferous. (A paleogeographic map can also be found on-line at: Earth can be used to locate this position and determine its distance from present day Mazon, Illinois. So, this position is presently in the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil, and it is approximately 4 900 miles (about 7 900 km) from Mazon. With a time elapse of 300 million years (2.6 x 1012 hours), this would make the speed of the North American plate about 2 x 10-9 mph (about 3 x 10-9 km/h) which translates to about 1 inch per year (2.5 cm per year). Note: even these rough calculations yield results that are of the same order as accepted plate movement speeds!

  1. Harris Educational Loan Center.
  2. Africa: The Land Experience Box. Use this box as a companion to a field trip analysis of the Africa exhibit. Descriptions of Africa’s diverse landscapes and natural resources are included with a map, geological specimens, and a video.
  1. Maps and Globes: An Introduction to New Zealand Experience Box. Plot starting points and destinations on the mapping tools in this Experience Box. Draw up a timetable for your trip and calculate how long it will take to get there or at what speed you’ll have to travel. Improve your map and globe study skills. The Experience Box includes a map showing landforms, population centers, transportation, and rainfall patterns of New Zealand.
  1. Field Museum Science/Website Resources.
  2. Maps: Finding Our Place in the WorldWebpage (

How have maps been used to seek out new worlds and cultures? The historical maps presented here can be compared to modern versions. If explorers followed these maps carefully, how far off would they be when they reached their destination? How much longer would it take to get there? Estimate travel speeds and calculate the times of travel using the distances determined from the maps.

An educator guide for this exhibit may be found at:

  1. Evolving Planet: Tour Through Time (Carboniferous Period) Website: (

This is a companion site for the investigation of plate movement described above. What scientific evidence is there for the Mazon Creek area to have been near the equator? What was life like during this period 300 million years ago?

The lush rainforest plants that deposited in the swampy delta area, and which we find today as fossils in the Mazon Creek area, are indicative of a tropical setting. These plants grew in an area that was warm year round, such as a location near the equator.