Motion

Timing Is Everything

This activity is used as an introduction to simple motion and the spark timer. Students pull a piece of timer tape through the spark timer and analyze the data on the tape to determine where their hand was moving the fastest and slowest. Position vs. time graphs can be plotted from the data and then analyzed. The students also use their timer tape to construct a histogram to further analyze the motion.

Sparking Ideas About Uniform Motion

This activity introduces students to the relationship between the position of an object over time as the object moves along a short distance. Spark timers and constant motion dune buggies yield easily measured data that can be graphed on a scatter plot to yield trend-lines that demonstrate the meaning of the slope of position vs. time and allow students to compare the motion of a buggy at two different speeds.

Walk This Way

One of our most popular activities, “Walk This Way,” gets students on their feet in the name of science. Students are given various position vs. time graphs; their challenge, walk in front of a motion detector and recreate the graph. Students must analyze the graphs and come-up with a game plan. They then get to step in front of their own motion detector and see if their predictions were right. This is a great analytical activity that is loads of fun for all.

What’s The Speed Of The Speed?

Newton's 1st and 2nd laws are explored in an activity that challenges students to use spark-timers and rulers to measure the position of an accelerating skate cart as it is pulled forward by a hanging weight suspended over a pulley. By examining their tape strip, they will detect a pattern in their timer tape that shows the effect of a constant unbalanced force as it acts on the object that it accelerates. Graphs of distance vs. time and/or speed vs. time can be generated to explore these concepts graphically.

2-4-6-8 This Is How We Accelerate!

The set-up for this activity is similar to “What’s The Speed Of The Speed.” Students are given the challenge of making their skate cart achieve a desired acceleration. This activity encourages trial-and-error and sound reasoning to figure out the perfect combination for the desired result. This activity should come after students have completed “What’s The Speed Of The Speed.”

Bringing Gravity Down To Earth

How does mass affect the motion of a freely falling object? Your students will design an experiment to answer that very question. Students drop various masses and collect data using a spark timer. Class data can be compiled from all lab groups and analyzed to determine what affect, if any, mass has on a falling object.