Review for:Forces in 1 Dimension

posted: on January 2, 2007 at 11:08AM

Physics

Newton's laws and friction

To help the students visualize the relationship between force and acceleration, see how net force is the sum of the forces on the same axis, to see how friction affects motion.

Intro or Regular

I have so far ronly used the resource in my non-honors class. I have shown the simulation on the ACTIVboard and have asked questions along the lines of "What will happen if I do this?" and then show them. I find it's helpful to have the students make predictions, because when they are wrong, it helps break down the misconceptions they have.

Provides visualization or animation, Provides a virtual lab, Increases student engagement and motivation, shows difficult concept

Overall, the simulation is acceptable. It shows the basic idea. The students like the variety of objects you can push across the floor. I think they are able to see the relationship between force and acceleration.

The students get rapidly bored with the simulation. I have (in years past) let them "play" with it and they lose interest in minutes. The scale is very small (+ or - 10 m) so there's not a lot of room to see the effects of no friction (uniform motion forever), or to see the ongoing effects of constantly applied force (constant acceleration, increasing speed).