"When a student first approaches a problem, success hinges on his/her ability to maintain an awareness of what decisions he/she is making and why he/she is making them." Sam Rhodes Here is the problem we tackled today: A student leaves the PAC at position -15.2m at 8:27 AM. She enters Senora Olsen's classroom at 8:31 AM at position 32.0 m. What was her average velocity? UNDERSTAND - Draw a diagram. PLAN - Use an equation (v=change in position/time) or graph (position vs. time). SOLVE - 11.8 m/min REFLECT - Graphs can also be used to solve problems. Record equations before inserting numbers. Include units with all numbers.
This week we have been working on finishing up our battery-powered vehicle experiment reports. We also have been making position vs. time graphs from word descriptions and vice versa. Today, we used a motion detector to create a position vs. time graph of our own motion.
Today we compared and contrasted our experiment data (particularly the graph of the data) to identify similarities and differences. We determined that the y-intercept of a position vs. time graph is the starting position, the sign (positive or negative) of the slope indicated the direction of travel and the size (magnitude) of the slope is the velocity of the object.