Many Physics courses include a unit on Circular Motion or include the topic in a unit on Newton's Laws. One of the primary objectives of such a unit is often the ability to identify the direction of the vector quantities velocity, acceleration, and net force. This Concept Builder provides a great test of student ability to identify the direction of these three vectors. This ability is often a pre-requisite to a second objective of being able to conduct a Newton's Laws analysis of the motion of an object moving in a circle or along a circular path.

This Concept Builder was intended as an in-class activity. After some discussion, demonstrations, and hands-on activities associated with moving in circles, allow students an opportunity to interact with the questions. The Concept Builder includes three difficulty levels. Teachers using the Concept Builder with their classes should preview the Concept Builder (or view the Questions in the separate file) in order to judge which levels would be most appropriate for their students. There are three different difficulty levels that can be engaged in through the Concept Builder. Those three difficulty levels are differentiated as follows:
 

• Apprentice Difficulty Level: Groups 1-6 Identiy the Direction of a Single Vector 
• Master Difficulty Level: Groups 7-10 Identify the Direction of Two Vectors
• Wizard Difficulty Level: Groups 11-14 Identify the Direction of Three Vectors

We can imagine it being profitable to allow students to make judgements as to what level to begin with and to progress from easier to more difficult levels. 

In order to complete an activity, a student must correctly analyze each question for that activity. If a student's analysis is incorrect, then the student will have to correctly analyze the same or very similar question twice in order to successfully complete the activity. This approach provides the student extra practice on questions for which they exhibited difficulty. As a student progresses through na activity, a system of stars and other indicators are used to indicate progress on the activity. A star is an indicator of correctly analyzing the question. Once a star is earned, that question is removed from the que of questions to be analyzed. Each situation is color-coded with either a yellow or a red box. A red box indicates that the student has incorrectly analyzed the question and will have to correctly analyze it twice before earning a star. A yellow box is an indicator that the question must be correctly analyzed one time in order to earn a star. Once every question in an activity has been analyzed, the student earns a medal which is displayed on the Main Menu. This system of stars and medals allows a teacher to easily check-off student progress or offer credit for completing assigned activities.

The most valuable (and most overlooked) aspect of this Concept Builder is the Help Me! feature. Each question group is accompanied by a Help page that discusses the specifics of the question. This Help feature transforms the activity from a question-answering activity into a concept-building activity. The student who takes the time to use the Help pages can be transformed from a guesser to a learner and from an unsure student to a confident student. The "meat and potatoes" of the Help pages are in the section titled "How to Think About This Situation:" Students need to be encouraged by teachers to use the Help Me! button and to read this section of the page. A student that takes time to reflect upon how they are answering the question and how an expert would think about the situation can transform their naivete into expertise. 

 

 

There are numerous resources at The Physics Classroom website that serve as very complementary supports for the Circular Logic Concept Builder. These include:
 

 

 

Additional resources and ideas for incorporating Circular Logic into an instructional unit on circular motion can be found at the Teacher Toolkits section of The Physics Classroom website.  Visit Teacher Toolkits.