Lesson Plan

Title: Velocity and Acceleration

Suggested Grade
Level:
Problem to be studied: Are Local Speed Limits and Traffic Controls Reasonable?
Intro: This lesson is the second part of a section on motion. It will cover 3-5 days depending on the weather 12
and extent of student dialogue.

Content Standard(s): Materials:

Pa Dept of Education Academic Standards of Science and Technology Toy car, ramp,
Content Standards: police car, road
3.4.12.C Analyze the principles of translational motion, velocity and acceleration as strips, stop
as they relate to free fall and projectile motion watches, data
tables, journals,
Process Standard(s): lap top computers
• 3.2.12.C (6), websites,
Apply the elements of scientific inquiry to solve multi-step problems. Notebooks
• Design an investigation with adequate control and limited variables to investigate a question. (journals)
• Organize experimental information using analytic and descriptive techniques. watches, data
• Evaluate the significance of experimental information in answering the question. tables, journals,
• Project additional questions from a research study that could be studied. lap top computers
(6), websites,
OBJECTIVES: The student will Notebooks
• Plot the displacement vs. time to represent velocity. (journals)
• Develop a plan for improving the current system
• Demonstrate an understanding of velocity and acceleration
• Organize experimental information into a report including conclusions and recommendations
Overview of Unit

The idea of this unit is to spiral the knowledge of the students from a moving toy car, to a Police car in the
school yard, to observation and experimentation, to a design and inquiry that lest them open up to the world of
possibility.

Student groups work in the classroom, parking lot and on the roadway (1-3 blocks) in front of the school to
assess the speed of the cars, the impact of the speed limits and traffic controls on velocity and acceleration These
arguments are developed through various lab activities (experiments and simulations) and from online research.
Each group will present the results of their inquiry in a formal presentation.
Procedures:

Engage: Arranger chairs in an oval. Use remote controlled car to circle the class
and start and stop in given locations. Discuss the factors involved in the travel.
Use a KWL on speed and acceleration. (Be sure to capture distance/second, and change in speed.)
Show the drag race video and discuss the motion of the vehicles.
Sample questions: What was the speed and acceleration? What does 6.8 seconds mean? Is that good or
bad?
Review the data gathering stage of the process.
Establish the 4 questions that will help them build their experimental findings.

Explore

Identify the deliverable form the data collection that should include:
• Designing a speed trap to capture the average speed, the max speed, the acceleration in both
directions.
• A data table and three separate plots showing the essential parameter.
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• A new approach to traffic control, including preliminary design and model.

.
Establish teams with a balance of commuters including bus, walkers.
Step one, have the Police car accelerate from a standing start with one member of each team in the car to
monitor the speed. Use the rest of the team to monitor the speed and time traveled from outside. Have the
car run several trials including a constant acceleration, some constant velocity, and changing acceleration.
Have the teams journal their findings, report out conclusions and generate questions for the other groups to
test their findings.
Collect the journals for overnight assessment looking for,
Data, insights, Q&A,
the distance the care traveled. What was the acceleration of the car?

Explain: During a typical trip to school, your car will undergo a series of changes in its speed. If you were
to inspect the speedometer readings at regular intervals, you would notice that it changes often. The
speedometer of a car reveals information about the instantaneous speed of your car; that is, it shows your
speed at a
particular
instant in
time.

The instantaneous speed of an object is not to be confused with the average speed. Average speed is a measure of
the distance traveled in a given period of time; it is sometimes referred to as the distance per time ratio. Suppose that
during your trip to school, you traveled a distance of 5 miles and the trip lasted 0.2 hours (12 minutes). The average
speed of your car could be determined as

On the average, your car was moving with a speed of 25 miles per hour. During your trip, there may have been times
that you were stopped and other times that your speedometer was reading 50 miles per hour; yet on the average you
were moving with a speed of 25 miles per hour

Speed and velocity

Imagine that on your way to class one morning, you leave home on time, and you walk at 3 m/s east towards
campus. After exactly one minute you realize that you've left your physics assignment at home, so you turn around
and run, at 6 m/s, back to get it. You're running twice as fast as you walked, so it takes half as long (30 seconds) to
get home again.

There are several ways to analyze those 90 seconds between the time you left home and the time you arrived back
again. One number to calculate is your average speed, which is defined as the total distance covered, divided by the
time. If you walked for 60 seconds at 3 m/s, you covered 180 m. You covered the same distance on the way back, so
you went 360 m in 90 seconds.

Average speed = distance / elapsed time = 360 / 90 = 4 m/s.

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The average velocity, on the other hand, is given by:

Average velocity = displacement / elapsed time.

In this case, your average velocity for the round trip is zero, because you're back where you started so the
displacement is zero

We usually think about speed and velocity in terms of their instantaneous values, which tell us how fast, and, for
velocity, in what direction an object is traveling at a particular instant. The instantaneous velocity is defined as the
rate of change of position with time, for a very small time interval. In a particular time interval delta t, if the
displacement is , the velocity during that time interval is:

The instantaneous speed is simply the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity.

Acceleration
An object accelerates whenever its velocity changes. Going back to the example we used above, let's say instead of
instantly breaking into a run the moment you turned around, you steadily increased your velocity from 3m/s west to
6 m/s west in a 10 second period. If your velocity increased at a constant rate, you experienced a constant
acceleration of 0.3 m/s per second (or, 0.3 m/s2).

We can figure out the average velocity during this time. If the acceleration is constant, which it is in this case, then
the average velocity is simply the average of the initial and final velocities. The average of 3 m/s west and 6 m/s
west is 4.5 m/s west. This average velocity can then be used to calculate the distance you traveled during your
acceleration period, which was 10 seconds long. The distance is simply the average velocity multiplied by the time
interval, so 45 m.

Similar to the way the average velocity is related to the displacement, the average acceleration is related to the
change in velocity: the average acceleration is the change in velocity over the time interval (in this case a change in
velocity of 3 m/s in a time interval of 10 seconds). The instantaneous acceleration is given by:

As with the instantaneous velocity, the time interval is very small (unless the acceleration is constant, and then the
time interval can be as big as we feel like making it).

On the way out, you traveled at a constant velocity, so your acceleration was zero. On the trip back your
instantaneous acceleration was 0.3 m/s2 for the first 10 seconds, and then zero after that as you maintained your top
speed. Just as you arrived back at your front door, your instantaneous acceleration would be negative, because your
velocity drops from 6 m/s west to zero in a small time interval. If you took 2 seconds to come to a stop, your
acceleration is -6 / 2 = -3 m/s2.
EXPAND
Using the information gathered, determine a more effective way to control the cars considering: the impact
of changing speed and the environmental impact.

Assessment Strategies: (Evaluation)

Formative Evaluation: Observation of team interactions and report outs.

Periodic review of notebook and journaling.
Design review.
Have the teams plot the velocity and acceleration from the selected trials
Observations of activities. (Rubric)
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Summative Evaluation: Experiment reports (See attached rubric)

.
Experimental findings review
Team reports of new designs.

Related Web Sites:

www.cpphysic.homestead.com;
www.physicslessons.com

Inquiry Report: acceleration

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CATEGORY Excellent Good Satisfactory Needs

Improvement
Question/Purpose The purpose of the The purpose of the The purpose of the The purpose of the
lab or the question lab or the question lab or the question lab or the question
to be answered to be answered to be answered to be answered
during the lab is during the lab is during the lab is during the lab is
clearly identified identified, but is partially identified, erroneous or
and stated. stated in a and is stated in a irrelevant.
somewhat unclear somewhat unclear
manner. manner.
Drawings/Diagrams Clear, accurate Diagrams are Diagrams are Needed diagrams
diagrams are included and are included and are are missing OR
included and make labeled neatly and labeled. are missing
the experiment accurately. important labels.
easier to
understand.
Diagrams are
labeled neatly and
accurately.
Journal/Notebook Clear, accurate, Dated, clear, Dated, notes are Notes rarely taken
dated notes are accurate notes are taken occasionally, or of little use.
taken regularly. taken occasionally. but accuracy of
notes might be
questionable.
Experimental Experimental Experimental Experimental Experimental
Design design is a well- design is adequate design is relevant design is not
constructed test of to test the to the hypothesis, relevant to the
the stated hypothesis, but but is not a hypothesis.
hypothesis. leaves some complete test.
unanswered
questions.
Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion No conclusion was
includes whether includes whether includes what was included in the
the findings the findings learned from the report OR shows
supported the supported the experiment. little effort and
hypothesis, hypothesis and reflection.
possible sources of what was learned
error, and what from the
was learned from experiment.
the experiment.
Participation Used time well in Used time pretty Did the lab but did Participation was
lab and focused well. Stayed not appear very minimal OR
attention on the focused on the interested. Focus student was
experiment. experiment most was lost on hostile about
of the time. several occasions. participating.