Science Fair

Students could explore a specific motion-related technology such as a personal transportation device (e.g., bicycle, snowmobile, automobile, motorcycle, skateboard, kayak, snowshoe, or wheelchair), and trace its evolution. They could describe the historical development of the technology and the roles of science and technology in the development of that technology. Students could also develop a cost-benefit analysis of the effects of the technology on society. A cost-benefit analysis can include ethical, legal, ecological, social, technological, scientific, economic, and political perspectives.
Students could generate questions regarding the motion of everyday objects. The class could discuss which questions could be investigated using a scientific approach and which questions are not answerable using scientific methods. Students should be encouraged to consider how they might design an experiment to test those questions that are testable using scientific methods. Example questions might include:
1. What is the effect of waxing skis on the performance of skis?
2. Why do speed skaters wear different types of skates than figure skaters?
3. What is the effect of different wheel sizes on the performance of a vehicle (bicycle, car, wheelchair, etc.)?
4. How long can a human keep accelerating?
5. What is the effect of wearing flippers on swimming?
6. Why have speed limits been established on public roads?
7. How does an understanding of the physics of motion help in the design of safer and more powerful vehicles?

Students could research the role of Canadians and Canadian companies and their contributions to science and technology in motion-related fields. Examples include: Bombardier (snowmobiles, trains, airplanes), kayak (Inuit), Jolly Jumper (Olivia Poole), CANADARM (Spar Aerospace/NRC), roller skates (Wallace Freeborn), self-propelled combine (Thomas Carroll), A.V. Roe (AVRO Arrow), wind tunnel and variable pitch propeller (Wallace Turnbull), electric wheelchair (George Klein), and toboggan (Algonquin). (IL, TL)
Students could research the ways in which athletes and high performance trainers use motion analysis software to improve athletic performance, exploring the impact of technology on work and learning opportunities. (CD 6.3)
Students could research the development of automobiles and how their performance (i.e., top speed, acceleration, braking) has improved over the years. This might include an investigation of land speed records. Students could graph this data in order to support or refute predictions about upper limits on automobile speed. (NUM)
Students could conduct a comparative study or a cost-benefit analysis of different modes of student transportation. Students could determine what factors (e.g., safety, performance, aesthetics, or fuel economy) could be used to evaluate the different modes of transportation. (CCT)
Students could prepare posters or brochures that visually demonstrate how various post-secondary disciplines study motion (e.g., sports science, biomechanics, mechanical engineering, aerodynamics, ballistics, and atomic physics). Students might also explore the educational and training requirements of various work roles. (IL, CD 5.3)
The motto of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) Synchrotron is "Innovation at the speed of light". Students could view the CLS web site< /a>, contact Educational Outreach, or visit the Synchrotron to find out how the Synchrotron is able to accelerate electrons to the speed of light, approximately 300 million metres per second. Students could calculate how that speed might compare to the speed of everyday objects. (TL)
Students might develop a science challenge project such as parachute drop, egg drop, model rocketry, rubber-band or mousetrap powered cars as a concrete example to study the various aspects of motion that are identified in this unit.
Students should observe the motion of everyday objects (e.g., bicycles, rollerblades, wheelchairs, ice skates, skateboards, skis, automobiles, birds, and animals) and write descriptions of the motion. Students should be encouraged to use their own words, such as "speeding up", "slowing down", "faster", and "slower", to describe motion. Students should compare these types of motion and their perceptions of motion from live observations with examples from student or teacher-made videos or from television programs. Students can use these descriptions to identify characteristics of different types of motion and then group together examples that demonstrate uniform motion and examples that demonstrate non-uniform motion. (COM)
Students should identify terms that people use to describe motion (e.g., speed up, slow down, fast, slow, motionless, stationary). Students could create visual representations of their understanding of relationships between these terms by using graphical organizers such as concept maps, webs, or lists. These can be used later in the unit to help students develop appropriate kinematics vocabulary to identify motion-related concepts.
Students could use a ticker-tape timer to create tapes of different kinds of motion. Students could attempt to pull the tape at a constant speed, at a variety of speeds, or at a constant acceleration. Alternatively, students may connect the tape to a motorized toy that moves at a constant speed. Students should be able to recognize that the spacing of the dots is a visual representation of the motion of the object. Further, students should recognize that a pattern of equally spaced dots represents uniform motion and a pattern of unequally spaced dots represents non-uniform motion. At this point, it is not necessary for students to conduct any quantitative analysis of the motion by measuring the distance between dots.
Students should discuss the role of observation in developing scientific knowledge and understanding after they have observed everyday objects in motion and identified examples of objects that sped up, objects that slowed down, and objects that moved at a constant speed in a straight line (uniform motion). It is likely that students will have difficulty categorizing every example of motion when they rely solely on visual observations. This discussion could provide a context or motivating factor for students to explore quantitative methods of describing and analyzing motion. (TL)
Students should discuss the role of technology in attaining information about the motion of an object. For example, although our bodies can "feel" changes in speed (of sufficiently high positive or negative values) in instances such as amusement park rides, elevators, or automobiles, we are generally unable to determine if we are actually moving. Consider a student lying in the back seat of a car on an incredibly smooth road, wearing headphones so that they cannot hear any road noise or wind noise. How is it possible for the student to tell whether they are moving or not moving, or how fast they are moving?
Students could explain how you can tell if an object is in motion. Their explanations can provide the context for introducing the concept of frame of reference. Consider the example of a person walking forward or backward on a moving bus, or handing an object to another person on a bus while the bus is moving. How does that motion appear to the people involved in the motion, to others on the bus, and to someone standing on the street watching the bus pass by? Do they all see the same set of motions? Would they all agree on quantitative measurements of the motions? Micro or macro scale examples of frame of reference might include discussing how we can tell that sub-atomic particles vibrate or that stars move in the universe. (CCT)
Students could create a video that demonstrates their understanding of motion-related concepts. Such a video might include edited clips from TV (sporting events, car chases in movies, everyday objects moving) and/or student-produced video of everyday objects in motion. The video might show examples of uniform and non-uniform motion, along with appropriate narration or titles.
Students should attempt to move an object, or themselves, at uniform motion. This will strengthen students' connections between conceptual and kinaesthetic understandings of uniform motion. One method of monitoring students' ability to move at a constant speed is through the use of a motion sensor or range finder. These technologies create real-time distance-time or speed-time graphs of objects that move in front of the sensor, typically within a range of 0.5 - 10 m. Students can move and monitor their motion, or they can move to try to match a pre-determined distance-time or speed-time graph.
Students should devise and perform experiments to collect data about objects that undergo uniform motion. Students should make decisions regarding: what object(s) to use for the experiment, what variables are to be tested, what variables are to be controlled, how to collect data, how much data to collect, how to organize the data, and how many trials to conduct. Students should graph their data on a distance-time graph in order to represent visually the relationship between object position and time variables. Students should save their graphs for quantitative analysis later in the unit. Many aspects of this activity can provide the foundation for further discussions of experimental methods. Students might write up their results using a narrative lab report rather than a formal lab report. (CCT, NUM)
Students should discuss methods of improving the relevance, reliability, and adequacy of data and data collection methods, and how different technologies might help resolve these issues. Some of the more common methods for collecting kinematics data in the classroom include: stopwatches and metre sticks, ticker tape timers, photogates, and motion detectors. Ticker tape timers have tended to be of great value in studying motion because students can obtain a large number of data points for an experiment of short duration. However, ticker tape timers are often not suitable outside of the classroom environment (e.g., student running on track, baseball in flight, moving vehicles). Students could also discuss that the motion being observed is not dependent on the technology used to measure that motion (i.e., collecting data using different technologies should result in similar representations of that motion). Students should recognize the positive effect technology can have on work and learning opportunities. (CD 6.3)
Students could discuss the challenges of collecting data on objects that are moving at very high (e.g., a plane flying) or very low speeds (e.g., an ant walking), situations for which ticker tape timers or metre sticks and stopwatches are not suitable. (CCT)
Students could use a video camera to collect data about moving objects, which enables students to analyze the motion frame by frame. The frames may be projected on a large screen for class analysis. Software is available specifically for analyzing video motion data that generates position-time data directly on the screen. (TL)
Students should identify examples of "rate of change" that are not motion-related and discuss how these rates might be similar to rate of change of distance or rate of change of position.
Students should describe examples from their own travel experiences to illustrate and explain the difference between instantaneous and average speed. Examples might include the speedometer readings of a car ride to school, the total time taken to drive to school, and the total distance traveled while driving to school.
Students could draw distance-time graphs to represent the motion of objects that students observe moving, without actually collecting data about those objects. For example, students could work in small groups to draw graphs of one other student moving forward and backward at constant or differing speeds. They can test their predictions by replicating the motion and collecting data using appropriate technologies. (CD 2.3)
Students could continue to link written and visual representations of motion by developing written descriptions of motion based solely on graphical representations of that motion (e.g., a distance-time graph). Conversely, students should be able to create an appropriate distance-time graph to represent a written description of motion.
Students could invite a police officer to discuss or demonstrate the use of a radar gun and other speed enforcement technologies such as aircraft. Some of these technologies report instantaneous values of speed, others report average values.
Students could compare various technologies that are used to determine the motion of objects. These technologies include RADAR, Laser, GPS, Doppler Radar, and infrared motion detectors. Students could explain how these technologies are able to determine the position or speed of objects.
Students could discuss the need for precision of motion-related measurements in different real world situations. Students should provide examples which require high precision (i.e., multiple decimal places) and examples in which answers can be less precise (i.e., rounded off to the nearest whole number).
Students should predict the shape of distance-time graphs and speed-time graphs for objects that undergo uniformly accelerated motion (e.g., ball rolling down a ramp, ball with an initial velocity rolling up a ramp, object falling), and then conduct an experiment to gather data that will support or refute their predictions.
Students should devise and carry out experiments to collect data about objects that undergo uniformly accelerated motion. Students should make decisions regarding what object(s) to use for the experiment, what variables are to be tested, what variables are to be controlled, how to collect data, how much data to collect, how to organize the data, and how many trials to conduct. Although the classic physics experiment for this concept involves a dynamics cart rolling down an inclined plane, students should be encouraged to consider other experimental designs. Students should represent their data using both speed-time and distance-time graphs. Students might complete a formal lab report for these experiments. (COM, NUM)
Students could replicate Galileo's classic experiment of "diluting" the acceleration of an object in order to be able to measure that acceleration. Galileo realized that most objects in free fall fell too fast for accurate position and time data collection in his time, which was before stopwatches and photogates. His experiment consisted of a round bronze ball placed in a straight, smooth, and polished groove within a piece of wooden moulding 12 cubits long, all of which was set upon an inclined plane. Galileo "diluted" the acceleration by adjusting the angle of the inclined plane so that his measuring device, a water clock, could be used to collect data. Students might choose to build a replica of the water clock or devise their own similar time keeping device.
Students could build a balloon, mousetrap, or elastic band powered vehicle and collect data about the object while it is accelerating and then while it is decelerating. Students could graph these motions to determine the uniformity of the object's acceleration and deceleration.
Students could discuss the role of technology in attaining information about acceleration (CD 6.3). Although our bodies can "feel" changes in speed (of sufficiently high positive or negative values) in instances such as amusement park rides, elevators, or automobiles, we are generally unable to determine the magnitude of the changes in speed. For example, does an elevator traveling from the main to third floor of a building accelerate at the same rate as an elevator traveling from the main to the tenth floor of a building? Students should discuss different technologies that can detect and measure acceleration.