Middle School Inquiry Lab on Graphing Motion
In this lab students will use the information they have learned to graph several different motion tests.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- How do you graph changes in motion? How do you interpret an object’s motion from a graph?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
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Materials List:
- masking tape
- set of motion cards
- stopwatch
PROCEDURE:
For this lab, you will need to provide a laminated set of printed motion cards for each group except the independent lab. That group needs a set of blank cards and a dry erase marker to create their own cards to graph their motion.
This lab has two sections for student groups to complete. The first requires students to pick a motion card, at random, and perform the tasks written on the card. The remaining students in the group will have to work together to try to graph what the other student is acting out. When the students correctly graph the motion on their lab sheet, another student can take the place of the first student and perform a different card.
Finally, after all the cards have been graphed, students will have to interpret a motion graph by answering specific questions about a graph provided.
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- How is acceleration demonstrated on a graph?
- What does the line on a graph look like when graphing fast constant speed?
- How do you show velocity on a graph?
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
TEKS: 6.8D – Measure and graph changes in motion.
