Spring Semester Week 5 February 7, 2019 - Describing Motion

This week we will taking a closer look at speed, distance, and time. We will use a class activity to learn how to perform speed calculations. We will also cover acceleration and velocity. Students will have the option to work additional problems at home.

Below are the notes for this week's upcoming class:

This week we began class by watching a video on speed, distance, and time as an introduction. See video below:

This gave us the basics of how to calculate speed using the speed = distance/time equation. We then continued the discussion in class where we learned that the basic speed equation breaks out into two additional equations: distance = speed x time and time = distance/speed. We created a graphic organizer to help us remember each of these three formulas and we did some introductory word problems to ensure a basic understanding.

Next, students broke into groups and applied what they learned to a class activity where a group of teachers leave a school and arrive at different times based on the route they took and the speed they drove. Each group was assigned two teachers and had to determine the amount of time it took their teachers to reach the restaurant. 
Speed Distance Time Class Activity

This activity proved to be a challenging application for most of the students so we did not get to complete the activity and discuss our results. However, this is an important topic that I want the kids to grasp, therefore we will continue working on the activity and conclude our discussion this week during class.

I will not be covering acceleration formally in class, however I did provide the notes above for students to record. I also provided practice problems that they are to glue into their interactive notebook. Below I have provided the answer key for those who desired to attempt the problems (which were pretty straight forward). 

Additionally, here are two videos on velocity and acceleration.