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1D session plans

The following is the outline plan of the first few sessions of 1D collision activities run in London in year 2 (2004). These sessions were 50 minute duration. It might be useful as a template for other teachers to develop their own session plans from.

1D collisions teacher notes

Session 1

 Prediction collision A

  • Explain Collision A situation on the projector/ board.
  • What does ‘frictionless’ mean?
  • Explain the term ‘velocity’.
  • Explain (or ask the group) what a negative velocity means.

 Individual assessment

  • Students fill in the ‘pre-tests’.

 Group discussion (and teacher mediated webreport)

  • What did you say for Question 1 (prediction of what happens)?
  • Velocity of ball 1?
  • Velocity of ball 2?
  • Is everyone happy with this description (get group consent for webreport)?

 Phenomena

  • Show the video showing Collision A.
  • Ask the group to describe what happens in the video (to someone who hasn’t seen it).
  • Does the video match your predictions?

 Model construction

  • As a group construct the basis of a ToonTalk model.

 Changes

  • Change the pretest to use carts instead of balls as this is what the video shows and it also removes the extra difficulty of having round objects colliding.

 Session 2

 Recap

  • Revise last session.
  • Show the video again.
  • Show the group webreport.
  • Go back into city (or start again from scratch) to set up the conditions to start training the robot (design solution). Note can use F11 to drop carts beside each other without bamming. Also, it is better to start training with cart1 having some (small) speed (you can train with both speeds zero but it makes it quite confusing).
  • Students’ challenge is to train the robot so that the carts behave in the same way as they did in the video.

 Modeling

  • Students are likely to set an explicit post-collision speed for cart 2. Explain that their robot will only work for one specific pre-collision speed of cart 1. Get them to try with a different speed for cart 1 and see their model break down. Challenge them to solve for any speed of cart 1.
  • After students have trained a robot and tried it on the floor, explain how trucks can be used to send the robot to another room so it ‘runs fast’. Can explain why it works to send in a truck but not to place on the back of a ball (sensors change allegiance).
  • Students must be encouraged to regularly save their cities!

 
Session 3

 Modelling

  • Briefly remind students what they were working on last time, and allow them to continue ToonTalk modelling.

 Webreport

  • Once students have completed a model they are happy with, they should package it for the web. Explain that they need to package all the parts together (hence put in a box with a number of holes), and that they should include instructions for someone else to be able to understand and use their model.
  • Use the very simple webreport template titled “Collision A individual report”.

 
Session 4

 Webreport

  • Allow students to finish modelling, packaging and to complete their webreports.
  • Challenge students to test their models under different circumstances (cart1 to the left of cart2 with negative velocity, cart2 also moving e.g. equal and opposite velocities).
  • If possible and for more advanced students, get them to define the limits of their model (i.e. what conditions it works correctly for) and to document on their webreport.

 Prediction collision B

  • Explain Collision B situation on the projector/ board.

 Individual assessment

  • Students fill in the ‘pre-tests’.

 Group discussion (and teacher mediated webreport)

  • What did you say for Question 1 (prediction of what happens)?
  • Velocity of ball 1?
  • Velocity of ball 2?
  • Is everyone happy with this description (get group consent for webreport)?

 Phenomena

  • Show the video showing Collision B.
  • Ask the group to describe what happens in the video (to someone who hasn’t seen it).
  • Does the video match your predictions?

 Model construction

  • Design is exactly the same as previous so should be relatively straight-forward.

 Session 5

 Model construction

  • The focus of the session is to help students model the Collision B situation.