Engage your students in learning to calculate speed with this fun, relatable, and student friendly, speed lab. This inexpensive and low prep lab, is great for getting your students up and moving, while also providing a real – world connection to the math behind the speed equation. Your secondary students will love collecting their own data in the form of walking backwards, speed walking, and hopping on one foot to calculate their speed and create a distance vs time graph.

Begin your lesson by reading the background information provided regarding the terms speed, distance and time. Assign students to work in pairs or small groups of no more than four. Each group will need 1-2 metersticks, three pieces of painter’s tape, and a stopwatch. Using the materials, students will work together to measure out and create a 10 meter long track.

When ready to begin, students will determine who will be the starting participant and who will run the timer. The starting participant will complete each task twice (walking backwards, speed walking, and hopping) as fast as possible. Once for a distance of 5-meters and a second time for a distance of 10-meters. The partner with the timer will measure and record the participant’s time in seconds. After the starting participant has completed all three tasks, partners will switch roles. After both partners have had a chance to be the participant, students will use the speed formula to determine their individual and their partner’s speed.

Standards Covered:

• Define the Terms Speed and Velocity
• Recognize the Units for Speed, Distance and Time
• Solve for Speed, Distance and Time using the Equation S = D/T
• Graph Recorded Data on a Distance vs Time Graph
• Solve for Speed using the Slope Formula
• Compare the Calculated Speed (using the Speed Equation) to the Graphed Speed (using the Slope Formula)

Materials Needed:

• Student Worksheet
• 1-2 Metersticks
• Painter’s Tape
• Timer or Stopwatch

Includes:

• Editable Student Worksheet
• Pre- Reading Section
• Materials List
• Easy Directions
• Post Lab Questions

You may also like:

• Calculating Acceleration Lab: Calculating the Velocity and Acceleration of a Wind-up Toy Car
• Calculating Speed and Velocity Lab: Measuring Motion
• Hot Wheels Calculating Speed and Velocity Lab

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