Teacher Notes for 1-D Kinematics

 

Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs
 

 

Unit Overview

For many Physics courses, the 1D Kinematics unit is the starting point of the year. The activities that have been selected for this unit will span approximately 16 days. The primary goal of the unit is to help students make strong connections between the various representations of motion - words, dot diagrams, vector diagrams, position-time graphs, velocity-time graphs, data tables, and equations. The hope is that you can show a student a dot diagram and they could associate it with the corresponding p-t or  v-t graph. Or you could show a student a p-t graph and they could describe the motion in words (with some details) and construct the corresponding v-t graph.

There are likely enough activities on our website to prolong this unit for 40 days. You will have to be a bit selective. You don't need to do it all. You may need more than 16 days; you don't need 40 days on the topic. The temptation will be to perseverate on kinematic graphs or kinematic equations. These are important. They will be used again. But there's a lot more to Physics than describing how objects move with words, diagrams, equations, and graphs. 


 

Minds On Physics 

We have suggested several Minds On Physics missions for this unit; the pattern will continue for other units.. These generally require more patience on student's part than Concept Builders. They include a Health bar that starts at 100% and drops downward with every missed question (it also rises a bit with each correct answer). If the Health bar drops to 0% before the Progress bar reaches 100%, students will have to start over. They will get more practice but the restart will wear upon their patience. With a Task Tracker subscription, you have the option to control the rate at which the Health bar decreases; lower the so-called Health penalty for the mission from 50% to 25% (or whatever you choose). But more importantly, prepare students for the mission, train them to rely upon their Think Sheets and class notes, and encourage them to use the Help and Hints button. The message to students should be that ...
 
Once you are able to get student buy-in on Minds On Physics, you may find it to be one of the more impactful resources for student learning. But fully selling students on the program may take more than one unit. For honors-level students, the selling task is less of burden than it is for on-level students. Honors-level students should be quite capable of the reading and reasoning demands that Minds On Physics imposes upon its users.


 

CalcPad Problem Sets

We get very excited about our Calculator Pad tool. The Calculator Pad tool is a problem-delivery system that utilizes randomized numbers in the problem and evaluates student answers. Students have multiple opportunities to correct their answers. Most problems are accompanied by one or more Help pages, some of which provide very detailed guidance on how to approach the specific problem (see headphone link). There are a couple thousand pre-made problems for use with CalcPad and we are continuously adding more. Problems are organized by topic and by difficulty level into short problem sets. Teachers with a Task Tracker subscription can set scoring rules, set a number of allowed tries (both penalized and unpenalized), customize problem sets (remove problems, add problems, combine problems from multiple sets, etc.), and even write their own problems. They can also view student progress, student scores, and aggregate class data that helps to discern where the greatest difficulties lie for the particular class.

We have created a set of eight custom CalcPad problem sets for this unit. The eighth set is simply a review of the math of the entire unit. The other sets are included at various locations within the Lesson Plans. Many of the problems are difficult. We advise that teachers carefully preview the problem sets to judge their suitability for the class being taught. With a Task Tracker subscription, the problem set can be modified; problems can be removed or replaced by easier problems.


 

Other Resources

There are a few resources that we did not list in our Lesson Plans or Learning Outcomes and Activities that you may find to be very helpful. These include:
 

1. Kinematic Graphing Simulation
   This simulation animates the six basic types of motion and accompanies each by a dot diagram, a p-t graph, a v-t graph, and an a-t graph. The graphs offer the ability to view the slopes at any instant in time (for p-t and v-t graphs) and to view the area between the line and the axis for any time interval (for v-t graphs). Users can modify motion parameters and view the effect such changes have upon graph features. There is also a Two Stage Motion mode that allows users to view the graphs for more complex motions. Finally there is a Sandbox mode and two accompanying Concept Builders. Teachers may want to use the downloadable Student Activity Sheet and the accompanying Concept Checker.
2. Graphs and Ramps Simulation
   Students must create a collection of ramps along which a ball will roll in such a matter than its motion matches a target p-t or v-t graph. There are several levels of difficulty and a star is rewarded for completion of each level. It does not include Task Tracker compatibility.
3. Dots and Graphs Concept Builder
   Students analyze a dot diagram and match the motion that it describes to the appropriate position-time or velocity-time graph.​
4. Words and Graphs Concept Builder
   Students identify the velocity-time graph that matches the verbal description given for an object’s motion.

 

Pace Tracer Activities

We have recommended two Pace Tracer activities from our Physics Interactives section. These are kinematic graphing labs. Students move in a manner to match a graph. There are multiple levels of difficulty and we keep track of progress - permanently via Task Tracker and temporarily via a display of stars on the main menu. The labs do not require expensive motion detectors or special software. It simply uses the camera on the device - phone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, etc. It works in the browser without any app. All that is required is a printed ArUco marker taped on a wall or held by a student as he/she walks towards and away from the camera. This is a no-budget solution for schools without motion detectors. And schools with motion detectors have found this to be an engaging addition to their usual practices. Each of our Pace Tracer activities are accompanied by a Student Activity sheet. They can be used by students as they progress through the activity.

 

Science Reasoning Center Activities

We have several 1D Kinematics activities at our Science Reasoning Center. These provide a slightly different approach than Concept Builders or Minds On Physics. They tend to emphasize less conceptual development and more scientific processing, data interpretation, experimental analysis, etc. They often make great follow-ups to labs and can sometimes be used as an introduction to a topic. For most topics, they are great accompaniments to an NGSS curriculum. Check out our Velocity-Time Graphs activity or our Stopping Distance activity as examples. If you have a Task Tracker subscription, visit the Teacher Resources section in order to quickly preview the activity and navigate through all the questions.


 

Teacher Presentation Pack

Our Teacher Presentation Pack is loaded with a collection of Slide Decks and animations for use in your classroom. Once downloaded, they are fully modifiable and customizable. They would allow you to quickly pull up a Slide for discussion in class or to show a quick animation. It may be a worthwhile investment, particularly if you are an early-career or cross-over Physics teacher.




 

Also Available ...

Physics teachers may find the following for-sale tools to be useful supplements to our Lesson Plan and Pacing Guide section:

 

1. Task Tracker Subscription (annual purchase)
   A subscription allows teachers to set up classes, add students, customize online assignments, view student progress/scores, and export student scores. Task Tracker accounts allow your students to begin assignments in class or at school and to finish them at home. View our Seat and Cost Calculator for pricing details.
    
2. The Solutions Guide
   We publish a free curriculum with >200 ready-to-use Think Sheets for developing physics concepts. The Solutions Guide is a download containing the source documents, PDFs of source documents, and answers/solutions in MS Word and PDF format. An expanded license agreement is included with the purchase. (Cost: $25 download)
    
3. Teacher Presentation Pack
   This is a large collection of downloadable content packed with nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, the corresponding Lesson Notes (as PDF and fully-modifiable MS Word format), about 170 animations (in .gif, .png, and .mp4 file formats), a countless number of ready-to-use images (including the original source documents that would allow for easy modification of those images), and a license that allows teachers to modify and use all the content with their classes on password-protected sites (such as course management systems).  (Cost: $40 download)
    
4. Question Bank
   We distribute a Question Bank that includes more than 9300 questions neatly organized according to topic. The Question Bank is the perfect tool for busy teachers or new teachers. Even if you don't use the website with your classes, the Question Bank will assist you in quickly putting together quizzes, tests and other documents with high-quality questions that target student's conceptions of physics principles. And if you do use The Physics Classroom website, the Question Bank is the perfect complement to the materials found at the website. (Cost: $25 download)