Taking Notes on Motion Name _____________________________________________

Physical Science Physics Period ____________ Date ______________

Taking notes on motion teachers notes:

Think about it first:
Students should try to think about a relationship between motion and speed. To travel
faster you either need to be covering more distance or taking less time. Students will be
confused initially by the questions; they need to be prompted to think about the
relationship between distance and speed or time and speed. They should think about the
distance traveled or time taken when looking at speed. It may be useful to draw a diagram
representing speed as a distance traveled in a given time, WITHOUT explicitly describing
the math. The idea with this activity is for students to come to the mathematical
relationships on their own. Early on, terminology like velocity and displacement are less
important as the students are making connections.

Activity setup (part 1):

1. Choose a starting point and label it for students to know. It is useful to have 2 to 3 lines of
students.
2. Place note cards, post-its, tape strips, whatever, at 0.5 meter intervals from the starting
position. There should be at least 8 intervals for students to cover.
3. Students should be informed that they will be covering 4 meters.
4. Use a metronome (Google has one) to have students walk the note cards.
5. There will be a timer and a walker, then they will switch roles for each tempo.
6. There should be 3 tempos for the initial trials. 60 bpm, 90 bpm, 120 bpm are good tempos.
7. Change tempo as all groups finish. The whole class should be moving with the same tempo.
8. The timer will get a feel for the beat and then say “Go!” on a beat and begin timing.
9. The walker should step on the next mark on the next beat, and step on each subsequent
mark on each subsequent beat. It is important for the students to move smoothly.
10. The timer should stop timing as soon as the walker hits the last mark.
11. After 3 tempos, remove the 0.5 m marks so that each stride is a full meter. REDUCE the
tempo! (90 is a good tempo)
12. Students should repeat the procedure.

Follow Up Questions:
1. Students are moving at constant speed, they should report that.
2. They need to relate constant speed with a constant distance traveled during a set time
interval.
3. For question ‘c’, they need to make this connection.
4. They also need to relate the relationship between time interval and speed.
5. Finally they need to relate the distance traveled to the speed.

Activity setup (part 2):

1. Choose a starting point and label it for students.
2. Select a tempo (90 bpm is good)
3. Move marks so that there is one at 0.25 m, 0.75 m, 1.50 m, 2.50 m, 3.25 m, 4.5 m. Basically
the distance between marks should increase by 0.25 m per mark.
4. Have students follow the same procedure but without timing.
5. For further investigation, have students begin at the end and move towards the beginning.
They will experience acceleration in the negative direction.
Taking Notes on Motion Name _____________________________________________
Physical Science Physics Period ____________ Date ______________

Taking Notes On Motion

 
Purpose: To get an idea of what motion feels like under different conditions.
 
Think about it first:
1. Explain how distance and time relate to speed in your own words.

2. Explain how distance, time, and velocity relate to acceleration in your own words.

3. What happens to the time it takes to make it to school if you go slower to get there?

Part 1:
Directions:
1. Read all the directions first….
2. Find a partner, someone you would trust with your life, or more importantly, your scientific
measurements.
3. Make sure someone has a stopwatch.
4. You will be measuring the time it takes to cover the post-its for 4 different speeds for both
you and your partner. Record all times in the data table on the next page.
5. Pick one person to line up behind the post-its that are taped to the floor. This is the walker.
6. The other person is the timer.
7. You will switch after each run.
8. When you are ready, the timer will listen for a beat, start the clock, and say “3, 2, 1, GO!” all
on the beats.
9. The timer should start the clock at the same time that they say “GO”.
10. As soon as the walker hears “GO!” They will take a step on the NEXT beat, making sure to
cover one notecard per beat.
11. As soon as the walker reaches the last card, the timer will stop the clock.
12. Record that time in your data table that you created.
13. Switch roles and repeat.
14. Once you each have a time for the tempo, sit down and calculate your speed.
15. After trial 4, go answer the questions.
 
Taking Notes on Motion Name _____________________________________________
Physical Science Physics Period ____________ Date ______________

Data:

Tempo Person 1 Time(s) Person 2 Time(s) Person 1 Person 2

(bpm) Speed(m/s) Speed(m/s)

1 (60)

2 (90)

3
(120)

4 (90)

Observations and follow up:

a. For tempo 1, what did you notice about your average speed over 4 meters. (Constant,
changing, etc?)

b. For tempo 1, what did you notice about the distance traveled per beat? (Constant, changing,
etc?)

c. How does the answer for letter b relate to the answer

d. As the tempo increased from trial to trial, what happened to your average speed?

e. How does the time between steps affect your speed?

f. How did the distance traveled during each beat in tempo 4 affect your speed?

g. How does the distance traveled per beat affect your speed?

h. Relate this to a real world example that is NOT you walking. Describe how this motion relates
to that situation. (Just think about things that move)

Part 2:
Taking Notes on Motion Name _____________________________________________
Physical Science Physics Period ____________ Date ______________

1. Read all directions first….

2. Pick one person to line up behind the new notecards that your instructor has just
revealed….
3. This person is the walker.
4. The other person is the initiator and observer. We will not be timing this run. You need only
make qualitative observations.
5. When you are ready, the initiator will listen for a beat and say GO!
6. As soon as the walker hears “GO!” they will walk, making sure to cover one notecard per
beat.
7. The observer should write down observations about how fast the walker is going per card
and how that compares to the distance traveled.
8. Switch roles and repeat.
9. If you need to go again to really understand, feel free, but don’t waste everybody’s time by
messing around.
10. Give your instructor an elbow bump when you are both satisfied.
11. Answer the following and wait patiently when you are finished.
Observations and follow up:
a. What do you notice about the distance traveled in each beat? (Constant, Changing, etc?)

b. Make a general statement about how your speed changed while you were traversing (moving
over) the notecards.

c. How was part one different from part two?

d. Relate this to a real-world example that is NOT you walking. Describe how this motion relates
to that motion.