Two Stage Rocket Notes

The Two Stage Rocket Interactive is an adjustable-size file that displays nicely on smart phones, on tablets such as the iPad, on Chromebooks, and on laptops and desktops. The size of the Interactive can be scaled to fit the device that it is displayed on. The compatibility with smart phones, iPads, other tablets, and Chromebooks make it a perfect tool for use in a 1:1 classroom.

This Interactive is provides learners with an easy-to-use environment for exploring the relationship between the motion of a multi-stage rocket and the graphical description of its motion. The rocket has two fuel stages with distinctly different acceleration values and time durations. The actual accelerations and duration times are randomly generated so that different different learners are likely to have different values. An exercise is provided to guide the activity for classroom use. An online quiz is also provided to check for understanding. Quiz scores are maintained and displayed on the screen.

This Interactive is intended for use at the middle to later stages of the learning cycle on kinematic graphing. The Physics Classroom has prepared an activity that steps students through both a conceptual and mathematical analysis of the motion. The mathematical analysis involves the calculations of slopes and areas for the two fuel stages and the free-fall stage that follows. We recommend the use of the exercise as it provides excellent practicce with such calculations and the simulation provides a means for checking the results of those calculations. Space is provided for students to show their work; it is essential that they do so since the answers can be found through the simulation without a calculation. The point of the exercise is to practice the calculation and be able to check the answer with the simulation. Checking can be done by stepping the simulation backwards to the specified time on the graph. Since the values used in the simulation are randomly selected, it is most likely that side-by-side students in a classroom will have different values. Therefore, "helping each other out" extends beyond "giving away the answer" to "teaching how to get the answer" - a valuable classroom trait that we all hope to nurture.

Our Two Stage Rocket simulation is now equipped with Task Tracker functionality. There is a follow-up quiz that is built into the exercise. Teachers with Task Tracker accounts for The Physics Interactives section can track their student's progress on the Two Stage Rocket quiz. (Learn more.) Most questions on the quiz are forced-choice style questions that involve a conceptual analysis. Students can navigate back and forth from the quiz to the simulation as they answer the questions. Thus, the quiz serves to focus student anttention upon subtle elements of the simulation. Feedback to the questions is immediate; student scores are displayed during the course of the quiz. The last few questions are more numerical and are based on numerical information provided in the actual simulation. Overall, the quiz provides a great assessment of student understanding and feedback to the student. It's worth emphasizing to students that the feedback is more important that the actual score. In fact, we recommend down-playing the importance of the quiz score. Scores on the quiz are saved for Task Tracker users. Furthermore, a Task Tracker student with partial progress can quit the quiz and log back in at a later time to continue from the point where they left off. Guest users can freely use the quiz but there scores and progress are not saved. Teachers with Task Tracker Accounts can customize the quiz by removing questions. For instance, a teacher of a conceptual class may wish to remove several of the questions with a numerical emphasis.
 

There are numerous resources at The Physics Classroom website that serve as very complementary supports for the Two Stage Rocket Interactive. These include:

Additional resources and ideas for incorporating the Two-Stage Rocket Interactive into an instructional unit on kinematics can be found at the Teacher Toolkits section of The Physics Classroom website. Visit Teacher Toolkits.