Pre-lab 1: Students Ideas about the Relationship between Position-time and Velocity-time Graphs
Initial Publication Date: December 31, 2016
Summary
Lab 1 introduces students to Position-time and Velocity-time graphs. While students are good at translating physical motion to a Position-time graphs, that translation is not so apparent for a Velocity-time graph, especially when many students do not even realize that velocity is a vector and direction matters. This pre-lab gets to students initial perceptions of motion graphs. After doing the lab, students can then reflect back on their initial ideas and see how they might be tweaked.
Learning Goals
This is a megacognition activity. Students, before doing a lab activity, put down their initial thoughts, what am I coming into this activity thinking. Then afterwards, annotate the pre-lab with any new information that they developed. They also analyze why their previous thinking was off.
Context for Use
Description and Teaching Materials
The prompts for the motion are included in the Realtime Physics Module 1 Lab 1. The Pre-lab file I uploaded is something I made using Logger Pro and the prompts from the lab book, just so students can think about about how motion relations to graphs and particularly the type of graph. I also uploaded a sample annotated Pre-lab 1, which students do after to make them reflect on what they thought and how that might have changed from the activity.
Pre-Lab 1: Intro to Motion (Acrobat (PDF) 211kB Nov28 16)
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Sample of an annotated Pre-lab. ![[creative commons]](/images/creativecommons_16.png)
Teaching Notes and Tips
I make them write it in pen! Sometimes I assign this for homework, but find that students will look up online what the answer should be. Therefore, sometimes I give students 10 minutes in class to fill out before starting the lab activity. This can be problematic for some as well, as some students need more time to compose their thoughts. But I do tell students that there initial ideas are, just that, initial ideas. I never fault them for it. I just want to know what it is. But students are so keen on "the right answer." Just write down what comes to mind when prompted with these questions. I have to do some coaching to get students to buy into this.
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Assessment
The annotated pre-lab is the important component. Students have to go back to their pre-labs. In red color pencil, mark out any ideas that were shown to be incorrect by the activity. Underline in green what ideas were affirmed by the activity. Fill in using blue pencil any new information. Write in blue, what activity in the lab made the red-crossed ideas incorrect and why.
References and Resources
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470768924,miniSiteCd-BSG.html