Santa’s Journey: Route Optimization Quest

Santa's Shortest Route Challenge is a festive, interactive learning lab where students take on the role of Santa’s logistics planner. This engaging activity combines geography, time zone calculations, and optimization to help Santa deliver gifts efficiently across the globe. It’s perfect for building problem-solving skills in a fun, holiday-themed context!

Key Features:

• Time Zone Mastery: Students calculate local times using GMT offsets to ensure Santa arrives at each city during the delivery window of 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
• Route Optimization: Students plan the shortest route for Santa to visit 25 cities and return to the North Pole, minimizing reindeer food consumption.
• Interactive Drag-and-Drop: Students drag cities onto a sequenced route planner, with automatic calculations for distance, travel time, and arrival time.
• Automatic Scoring System: Scores are based on the number of cities visited, with ties broken by the total food consumed (less is better).
• Real-World Application: Introduces students to the basics of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), used in logistics, transportation, and network optimization.

This lab is an excellent way to teach critical thinking and real-world applications in a festive and engaging way. Teachers can use it to make learning fun while covering valuable concepts in math and geography. 🎅✨