Science Reasoning Center - 1-D Kinematics

Here is our current listing of Science Reasoning activities for 1D-Kinematics. All activities can be used as a Guest without Task Tracker or as a logged-in student with Task Tracker. Learn more about Task Tracker for Science Reasoning activities.

 

Kinematics

This activity includes a description of a ball tossed upward into the air. The description includes a dot diagram, a position-time graph, and a velocity-time graph. Questions target a student's ability to extract meaningful data from diagrams and graphs, to interpret graphs, and to make connections between the diagrams and graphs.
 

 

Velocity-Time Graph

This activity describes four different experiments involving the use of a motion detector and the resulting velocity-time graphs. Ten different types of motion (fast, slow, movement towards and away from the detector, constant speed, changing speed, etc.) are contrasted in the experiments. Questions target a student's ability to interpret data, to compare and contrast the results of the various experiments, to use the results of the experiments to evaluate the validity of a conclusion, to identify the supporting evidence for a conclusion, and to reason towards appropriate conclusions when given the findings of an experiment.
 

 

Moving Cart on an Inclined Plane

This activity presents data for a cart moving up and down and inclined plane in the form of position-time and velocity-time graphs. Students miust extract position or velocity data from a graph if given a time, extract a time value if given a position or a velocity value, determine a velocity value for given a position (and vice versa), and use information from the graph to support a variety of claims.


 

Stopping Distance

This activity presents data regarding the relationship between reaction time, car speed, reaction distance, braking distance, and total stopping distance. The data is presented in the form of a bar chart and a data table. Questions target a student's ability to recognize and use numerical patterns, to select relevant data from a graph or table, to combine information from two or more data presentations to answer questions, and to interpolate and extrapolate using the provided data.