Labs for Vectors and Projectiles
Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs
We have a collection of ~150 labs in the Laboratory section of the website. Each lab was intended to be used with a lab notebook where students report their data and findings and state their conclusion with supporting evidence and reasoning. The intent was to provide a relatively clear purpose (or question) to students that they would need to address AND to limit the amount of directions. The hope is that the purposes and students' ability to design a procedure would drive the lab activity (in contrast to a detailed set of step-by-step procedures being the driving force of students' activity). As such, each of our labs comes with a Question and Purpose and a short paragraph describing what should be included in students' lab report. On occassion, students are also provided a graphic organizer, data table, or other item to be taped into their notebook. The following pages may be useful for those teachers who wish to adopt or simply trial our Labs with a Purpose approach:
Our Thoughts on the Approach || About Lab Notebooks || Teacher Guides for All Labs
Lab 1: Map Lab
Question:
How do the N-S, E-W legs of a trip compare to the overall displacement of that trip?
Purpose:
To identify the mathematical relationship between the N-S and E-W legs of a trip to the overall displacement for that trip.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, and a Conclusion/Discussion. The Data section should include the provided table with the required trips and one self-designed trip. The Conclusion/Discussion should identify the mathematical relationship between the legs of the trip and the overall displacement for that trip; the relationship should be general enough to be applied to any trip in order to determine the overall displacement from a statement of the legs. Two of the four trips (at least one of which is a three-legged trip) should be mathematically analyzed to provide the supporting evidence for your conclusion; work should be shown, labeled and discussed in an organized fashion.
View: Teacher's Guide || Data Table
Lab 2: As the Crow Flies
Question:
What is the as-the-crow-flies displacement from the Physics room (Room 332) to an assigned location in the school?
Purpose:
To determine the as-the-crow-flies displacement from the Physics room (Room 332) to a designated location within the school.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, and a Conclusion. The Data section should include a table of the magnitude and the direction of each of your hallway displacements used to reach your assigned destination. The number (or letter) of the destination should be indicated. This section should also include a trigonometric analysis of the data and a scaled vector diagram analysis; the analyses should be organized, labeled and follow-able. All work should be shown for your trigonometric analysis. In the scaled vector diagram: indicate a scale, label the magnitudes of all vectors, place arrowheads on all vectors, draw and label the resultant, identify the measured and scaled-up magnitude of the resultant and identify the direction of the resultant. The Conclusion should respond to the question raised in the Purpose.
View: Teacher's Guide
Lab 3: Road Trip
Question:
What overall displacement (magnitude and direction) and final destination results from the addition of three displacement vectors?
Purpose:
To determine the overall displacement and the final destination which results from the addition of three displacement vectors (beginning in Chicago).
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, a Conclusion, and a Post-Lab Questions section. The Data section should include the provided table of displacements; the table should be completed and the resulting displacement should be determined using trigonometry; all work should be clearly shown. The Conclusion (as always) should answer the question posed in the Purpose. The three provided questions should be answered.
View: Teacher's Guide
Lab 4: Where Am I?
Question:
What is the ultimate destination which results from the combination of three displacement vectors?
Purpose:
To identify the ultimate destination which results from the combination of three displacement vectors.
A complete lab write-up includes a Title, a Purpose, a Data section, and a Conclusion. The Data section should include the provided table. For each vector, the vector should be sketched and labeled with magnitude and angle with respect to a nearby axis; the N-S and E-W components should be calculated; work should be organized and labeled. The final destination should be identified. The Conclusion responds to the question raised in the Purpose (as always).
View: Teacher's Guide || Data Table
For those classrooms with access to projectile launchers, there is a collectioni of labs in The Laboratory that utilize the launchers for a study of projectiles.
Also Available ...
Physics teachers may find the following
for-sale tools to be useful supplements to our Lesson Plan and Pacing Guide section:
- Task Tracker Subscription (annual purchase)
A subscription allows teachers to set up classes, add students, customize online assignments, view student progress/scores, and export student scores. Task Tracker accounts allow your students to begin assignments in class or at school and to finish them at home. View our Seat and Cost Calculator for pricing details.
- The Solutions Guide
We publish a free curriculum with >200 ready-to-use Think Sheets for developing physics concepts. The Solutions Guide is a download containing the source documents, PDFs of source documents, and answers/solutions in MS Word and PDF format. An expanded license agreement is included with the purchase. (Cost: $25 download)
- Teacher Presentation Pack
This is a large collection of downloadable content packed with nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, the corresponding Lesson Notes (as PDF and fully-modifiable MS Word format), about 170 animations (in .gif, .png, and .mp4 file formats), a countless number of ready-to-use images (including the original source documents that would allow for easy modification of those images), and a license that allows teachers to modify and use all the content with their classes on password-protected sites (such as course management systems). (Cost: $40 download)
- Question Bank
We distribute a Question Bank that includes more than 9300 questions neatly organized according to topic. The Question Bank is the perfect tool for busy teachers or new teachers. Even if you don't use the website with your classes, the Question Bank will assist you in quickly putting together quizzes, tests and other documents with high-quality questions that target student's conceptions of physics principles. And if you do use The Physics Classroom website, the Question Bank is the perfect complement to the materials found at the website. (Cost: $25 download)