Chart that Motion

Contributor
Tom Henderson
Type Category
Assessment Materials
Types
Assessment Item , Activity
Note
This resource, vetted by NSTA curators, is provided to teachers along with suggested modifications to make it more in line with the vision of the NGSS. While not considered to be "fully aligned," the resources and expert recommendations provide teachers with concrete examples and expert guidance using the EQuIP rubric to adapted existing resources. Read more here.

Reviews

Description

This resource is an online interactive activity that displays 12 different energy bar charts and requires students to match a written description with the charts. There is a scoring system that allows teachers to monitor student progress. This is an HTML 5 interactive activity that works well on iPads and other tablets as well as Chromebooks and Macs. It does not display nicely on phones.

Intended Audience

Educator and learner
Educational Level
  • High School
Language
English
Access Restrictions

Free access - The right to view and/or download material without financial, registration, or excessive advertising barriers.

Performance Expectations

HS-PS3-2 Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative positions of particles (objects)

Clarification Statement: Examples of phenomena at the macroscopic scale could include the conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy, the energy stored due to position of an object above the earth, and the energy stored between two electrically-charged plates. Examples of models could include diagrams, drawings, descriptions, and computer simulations.

Assessment Boundary: none

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this performance expectation, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Performance Expectation
The instructor will want to have already taught lessons about energy because this resource assumes a good deal of background knowledge from the students including the Law of Conservation of Energy, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, and work done by friction. This resource does have additional support for the instructor and students at the bottom of the initial webpage (http://www.physicsclassroom.com/NGSS-Corner/Activity-Descriptions/Chart-That-Motion-Description) under “Associated Readings” and “Other Supporting Pages.”

HS-PS3-1 Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in energy of the other component(s) and energy flows in and out of the system are known.

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on explaining the meaning of mathematical expressions used in the model.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to basic algebraic expressions or computations; to systems of two or three components; and to thermal energy, kinetic energy, and/or the energies in gravitational, magnetic, or electric fields.

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this performance expectation, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Performance Expectation
The instructor will want to have already taught lessons about energy because this resource assumes a good deal of background knowledge from the students including the Law of Conservation of Energy, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, and work done by friction. This resource does have additional support for the instructor and students at the bottom of the initial webpage (http://www.physicsclassroom.com/NGSS-Corner/Activity-Descriptions/Chart-That-Motion-Description) under “Associated Readings” and “Other Supporting Pages.”

Science and Engineering Practices

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this science and engineering practice, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Science and Engineering Practice
This resource does an adequate job of meeting the principles of the practice discussed above. Students must analyze energy bar charts and by applying the work-energy model, make conclusions about which description matches each chart. It could more fully meet the practice if computations were required. The questions in the resource do not require calculations so the instructor may want to include some computational questions to help students fully meet the principles of the practice.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this disciplinary core idea, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Disciplinary Core Idea
Because Conservation of Energy and energy transfer are only inferred in this resource and not explicitly stated, the instructor may want to review those principles before assigning this activity. At the bottom of the main page of the resource, there is a link to information about how energy is conserved in particular situations. That link is provided here http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/energy/Lesson-2/Analysis-of-Situations-in-Which-Mechanical-Energy and will prove invaluable in helping students answer the questions posed in the activity.

This resource is explicitly designed to build towards this disciplinary core idea.

Comments about Including the Disciplinary Core Idea
Because Conservation of Energy and energy transfer are only inferred in this resource and not explicitly stated, the instructor may want to review those principles before assigning this activity. At the bottom of the main page of the resource, there is a link to information about how energy is conserved in particular situations. That link is provided here http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/energy/Lesson-2/Analysis-of-Situations-in-Which-Mechanical-Energy and will prove invaluable in helping students answer the questions posed in the activity.

Crosscutting Concepts

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this crosscutting concept, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Crosscutting Concept
Neither energy nor cause and effect are explicitly mentioned in this activity so the instructor may need to give their students prior experience with those concepts. However, the tips already given for the Practice and Disciplinary Core Ideas will help to fully address the Cross Cutting Concepts. Students will not be able to randomly guess and do well. They identify the relative height of the bar on the bar chart based on information about speed or height of the moving object. They can't do this effectively without doing algebraic reasoning.

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this crosscutting concept, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Crosscutting Concept
Neither energy nor cause and effect are explicitly mentioned in this activity so the instructor may need to give their students prior experience with those concepts. However, the tips already given for the Practice and Disciplinary Core Ideas will help to fully address the Cross Cutting Concepts. Students will not be able to randomly guess and do well. They identify the relative height of the bar on the bar chart based on information about speed or height of the moving object. They can't do this effectively without doing algebraic reasoning.

Resource Quality

  • Alignment to the Dimensions of the NGSS: A student is able to engage all three dimensions of the NGSS. Students can meet the practices by using mathematical and computational thinking to answer questions 4 and 5 of the activity. Students need to analyze and interpret data to answer the questions, and furthermore, they use evidence as the basis for their conclusions. Students can meet the Disciplinary Core Ideas by using the definitions of energy and conservation of energy as they discover that the starting position of the car on the ramp affects its velocity at the bottom. Likewise, the students use the concepts of conservation of energy and energy transfer to analyze how the stopping distance of the car depends on its initial velocity at the bottom of the ramp before it hits the box. Finally, by addressing the previous two components, students will also address the Cross Cutting Concepts because they will have already needed to explain how energy is conserved and transferred. In addition, students will address the principle of cause and effect when they discover that a car moves faster at the bottom if it started from a higher height. Likewise, students will also address cause and effect because they will discover that the car moves farther if it has a greater velocity.

  • Instructional Supports: The resource does an adequate job of engaging students in sensemaking.. The resource fails to adequately provide guidance to teachers on how to differentiate instruction. This resource could easily be turned into a hands-on activity that could be performed by the students with simple materials in the classroom such as balls and ramps. A teacher could address different learning styles and strengths if this was a kinesthetic activity.

  • Monitoring Student Progress: The handout requires students to answer questions which allows the instructor to monitor student progress. The questions elicit direct, observable evidence of three‐ dimensional learning and assess student proficiency using methods, vocabulary, representations, and examples that are accessible and unbiased for all students.

  • Quality of Technological Interactivity: The “Physics Interactive” portion of the resource allows students to work at their own pace as they answer a series of clicker questions that ask the users to match energy bar graphs with the correct description. It is easy to use, works well on computers, tablets, and smartphones, and is purposely designed to direct learning.