Plane Crash in Yellowstone

By Platform Administrator · Submitted Sep 30, 2026

Content Area: Mathematics
Grades: 11-12

A plane has crashed in a thickly wooded section of Yellowstone National Park. Each small group of students is a rescue team. Each team creates a map that shows the shortest feasible distance to the crash site.

MA Standards

PC.F-TF.B.7

(+) Use inverse functions to solve trigonometric equations that arise in modeling contexts; evaluate the solutions using technology, and interpret them in terms of the context.*

PC.G-SRT.D.11

(+) Understand and apply the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines to find unknown measurements in right and non-right triangles (e.g., surveying problems, resultant forces).

SMP.4

Model with mathematics.

Resources

Plane Crash in Yellowstone Task Template (PDF) PDF · 153 KB
Plane Crash in Yellowstone Task Template (Word) DOCX · 1.59 MB
Student Directions DOCX · 51.8 KB
Plane Crash in Yellowstone Rubric DOCX · 1.54 MB
Student Exemplar DOCX · 950 KB

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