David Baxter

The Acceleration Assignment is a worksheet that starts with a comparison of speed and acceleration in terms of the equations, units, motion maps, and position-time graphs. The second half of the assignment gives students practice figuring out changes in speed and calculating basic acceleration problems.

Every macroscopic object in the universe follows either Newton’s first law of motion, or Newton’s second law of motion, but never both at the same time. The First Law or Second Law? Assignment provides students with 25 different scenarios and challenges them to recognize each as either a “first law” or “second law” situation. Some of the scenarios are simple and some are tricky, but even the apparently simple scenarios might generate unexpected classroom debate and reveal hidden misconceptions

Students must label the forces they draw in their force diagrams on the back side of the assignment, but the amount of labeling can be decided by the teacher. Some labels such as FN for the normal force and Fg for gravity are typical, but there are variations such as N for the normal force or W for the weight of the object, which is the force of gravity acting on the object. The important thing is that the students and teacher agree on a set of standard force labels so that they can communicate

Newton’s 2nd law of motion relates the net force acting on an object to the object’s mass and its acceleration. This assignment gives students some basic practice with 2nd law concepts and the equation F = ma. The final six questions feature force diagrams that must be used to determine the net force acting on each object before proceding to calculate the acceleration of each object.

The Force Diagrams Assignment can be used in class discussion with students suggesting answers and evaluating other groups’ suggested answers before arriving at a consensus for each situation. Or, the assignment can be used as homework for students to complete on their own to provide the teacher with a formative assessment of student progress. It may also be helpful for the teacher to ask students to explain their reasoning along with each answer for a deeper evaluation of student understanding.