Teacher Resources
The Physics Classroom has been devoted to helping students, teachers, and classrooms since the 1990s. We are as passionate about that mission now as we have ever been. If you are a teacher of Physics or Physical Science, we encourage you to use our Video Tutorial with your students. And we also encourage you to consider the use of other resources on our website that coordinate with the video. We have listed a few below to help you get started.
Much of our Kinematics resources are heavily reliant upon the use of dot diagrams. The ones we listed here are most focused on dot diagrams and vector diagrams.
Curriculum Corner: Describing Motion with Diagrams
Our Curriculum Corner features a collection of single-concept (mostly)
Think Sheets that develop concepts in a logically organized manner. Our Describing Motion with Diagrams Think Sheet makes for a great in-class follow-up on this topic. You can view Think Sheets on similar topics
here.
Concept Builder: Name That Motion
Students love Concept Builders. Their game-like feel and immediate feedback are engaging. They make for awesome formative assessments and in-class check-ups. In this activity, students must identify the proper verbal description that matches an animation and accompanying dot diagram. It's challenging and profitable.
Concept Builder: Motion Diagrams
This Concept Builder offers students an opportunity to put all the content of the video into practice. We highly recommend our Motion Diagrams Concept Builder. Try this one to assess students ability to combine dot diagrams and vector diagrams. We recommend it as a follow-up; it does require a pre-requisite understanding of acceleration.
MOP the App #1: Kinematics Concepts, Mission KC5: Oil Drop Representations
Here's a bold claim: there is not a better exercise for putting knowledge into practice than the Minds On Physics program. Available as an app on several devices, the MOP program consists of carefully crafted questions that target discrete concepts. Mission KC5 on App #1 is a great follow-up to this video lesson. For students that are serious about learning Physics, this is a great activity.
The Tutorial, 1-D Kinematics Chapter, Lesson 2: Ticker Tape Diagrams
Since the birth of our website, our Tutorial section has been a go-to place for learners to further their understanding of Physics concepts. This page from our Kinematics Chapter makes a great reference to the ideas learned in the video.
Concept Builder: Dots and Graphs
This Concept Builder challenges students to associate dot diagrams with position-time graphs and velocity-time graphs. While you may not be that far into the Kinematics curriculum, you should remember that it exists and return to it later.
Teacher Toolkits: Position-Velocity-Acceleration
We recognize that you may be interested in more than dot diagrams. The concepts they represent that are associated with position, velocity, and acceleration are critical. We've put together a series of Teacher Toolkits that identify a collection of resources about the internet that are standards-based and multi-media driven. You may find some resources of interest in our Toolkit titled
Position-Velocity-Acceleration.