Open AccessEmpowering Optimization Skills Through an Orienteering Competition
Author(s) -
Marianna Fornasiero,
Federico Malucelli,
Rodolfo Pazzi,
Tommaso Schettini
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
transactions on education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.161
H-Index - 3
ISSN - 1532-0545
DOI - 10.1287/ited.2021.0243
Subject(s) - orienteering , competition (biology) , computer science , event (particle physics) , outcome (game theory) , class (philosophy) , component (thermodynamics) , code (set theory) , simple (philosophy) , operations research , trajectory , artificial intelligence , microeconomics , mathematical optimization , economics , mathematics , programming language , ecology , philosophy , physics , set (abstract data type) , epistemology , quantum mechanics , astronomy , biology , thermodynamics
We report on a playful introduction of optimization in a high school. The final event of this experience has been an orienteering competition, in which the decision-making component plays a central role. This type of event has been very involving, and it boosted the interest of the students toward operations research. After summarizing the activities in class that preceded the competition, we describe in detail the organization aspects and the outcome. We also provide a simple AMPL code that compares the choices made by the participants with their optimal trajectory, that is, the one maximizing the score with the same traveled distance.