This animation illustrates the concept of relative motion by depicting two objects moving with differing frames of reference.  (Open Website)

An "Illumination" is a short chunk of explanatory/exploratory material that addresses a specific topic, usually from a conceptual point of view. These Illuminations contain simulations and were designed primarily for student self-study and practice.  (Open Website)

Background information and tutorials for graphing motion.  (Open Website)

When you study motion in one dimension (motion along a straight line) a good place to begin is with motion diagrams. These tutorials contain a number of interactive motion diagrams for the student.  (Open Website)

Toy trucks and motion detectors are used in this lesson plan that explores motion graphing and its terminology.  There are no calculations required.  (Open Website)

A lesson plan developed by the PhET project for use with "The Moving Man" simulation.  Students with little prior knowledge of graph interpretation will gain understanding of velocity vs. time graphs and how they differ from position vs. time.  (Open Website)

This is a PhET Gold Star winning lesson that helps students build skills in interpreting graphs of motion.  It accompanies the PhET simulation "The Moving Man" (see link below) and includes classroom-ready Power Point concept questions, student guide, and assessments.  (Open Website)

Students will apply knowledge of motion by making their own animated sequences that model real-life physical situations.  Sound a little zany?  Topics include motion in an inertial reference frame, gravity on a falling body, and orbital motion of planets.  Fun and creative!  (Open Website)

Student-centered activity whose goals include dispelling motion myths.  (Open Website)

Maneuver a simulated man and watch simultaneous graphs of his position, velocity, and acceleration.  For beginning learners, the acceleration graph may be closed.  Try teaming this simulation with the great companion lessons above.  (Open Website)

With one mouse click, students may create their own customized graphs from among five types: bar, line, area, pie, and X/Y.  Various patterns, colors, grids, and label choices allow for customization, with a full tutorial to help in set-up. This resource is cost-free.  (Open Website)

This set of lessons investigates the language of kinematics.  It is designed to help students internalize the meaning of words used to describe motion.  (Open Website)

Excellent self-guided tutorial promotes understanding of "position" as a physics concept.  Contains multiple graphs, animations, and interactive opportunities for students to test their comprehension.  (Open Website)

This printable two-page worksheet/assessment gauges student understanding of position vs. time graphs.  It was developed by the Modeling Instruction project team.  (Open Website)

A great follow-up for the position vs. time worksheet above, this assessment asks students to create and interpret v-t graphs when given the motion of an object in a p-t framework.  (Open Website)

An assessment designed by the award-winning Modeling Instruction team.  It assesses a student's ability to create and also interpret motion maps, p-t graphs, and v-t graphs.  Could be used either as a class review or as a unit test.  Downloadable in pdf format.  (Open Website)

An assessment in the form of a question that asks students to identify which objects are accelerating, when shown a set of four strobe diagrams.  A2L materials are designed to reveal what students do NOT know and build a basis for formative assessment.  (Open Website)

Lesson Plan
This two-day lesson is built around a pair of online games that let beginners investigate single-vector and dual-vector systems.  Includes post-lesson assessments with answers provided.  (Developed by National Council for Teachers of Mathematics)  (Open Website)

Unit of Instruction
A unique and highly engaging two-week unit on vectors.  Beginning physics students build understanding of vector properties by doing real pilot navigation training.  This problem-based learning module comes with complete guides for teacher and learner.  The final assessment is a virtual pilot test flight.  Cost-free with teacher registration  (Open Website)

Power Point Lecture
This is an exemplary set of Power Point materials for teachers to introduce vector basics, including vector addition/subtraction and how to calculate vector components.  See Assessments below for a companion unit test.  All may be freely downloaded.  To read about the underlying pedagogy employed by the authors, go to Reference Material below and click on the Vector Calculus Gap report.  (Open Website)

Simulation
Students explore several kinematics situations involving different starting positions and speed.  Velocity and acceleration vectors are displayed in real-time graphs as the action is animated.  (Open Website)

Simulation
It can be difficult for beginning students to understand what a vector represents.  This fun simulation allows them to watch vectors change as they drive a virtual car.  Speed vs. Time is also displayed in a real-time companion graph.  (Open Website)

Interactive Simulation
Want to give your students a chance to explore vector addition without tackling the math? This simple Java simulation lets them draw two vectors by clicking and dragging the cursor. The components, magnitude, and direction will be displayed; then click "Add" to see the vector sum.  (Open Website)

Related Research
The primary goal of the Kinematics Graphing Project is to investigate the ability of students to interpret kinematics graphs and to generate a set of suggestions for faculty teaching the subject.  (Open Website)

Reference Material
This page is an interactive environment where subjects are organized in flow charts allowing easy movement from one topic to a related item.  Vector resolution, addition, and product are covered in-depth.  (Open Website)

Self Study/Content Support
This award-winning web tutorial is a great choice for the crossover teacher who wants a refresher on vectors and their properties.  Included is an introduction to free-body diagrams, example problems, a series of self-paced questions, and related interactive simulations.  (Open Website)

Simulation-Based Tutorial
This Java applet walks students step-by-step through the process of tip-to-tail vector addition.  The accompanying text is easy for high school students to follow.  (Open Website)

Simulation-Based Tutorial
This simple, yet effective Java-based tutorial uses geometric overlays to demonstrate why the Pythagorean Theorem works.  Background text helps students understand its importance in vector algebra.  (Open Website)

Comprehensive Test/Unit Assessment
This comprehensive worksheet on vectors may be used as a test/quiz for beginning physics students.  It was designed to accompany the lecture and lesson materials by the same authors (see above under Lesson Plans).  May be freely downloaded and printed for classroom use.  (Open Website)

In this activity students will be able to use a computer generated graph to explain the motion of a body and analyze alternative explanations and models.  (Open Website)

This simple animation shows the motion of an object moving with constant acceleration. Ghost images can be displayed, with controls available to pause, step, and rewind.  Try teaming this applet with the one below on constant velocity.  (Open Website)

This simulation demonstrates the motion of a model car with constant acceleration. The user can set values for initial position, velocity and acceleration; the simulation will create real-time graphs.  Two timers can be placed anywhere along the path of the car to measure the motion at intervals.  (Open Website)

This material focuses on the language, principles, and laws which describe and explain the motion of objects.  This item is part of The Physics Classroom project.  (Open Website)

This page contains links to lesson plans, graphs, and activities on linear motion.  Topics covered include rates of change, scalar and vector quantities.  These resources are tied to standard goals for instruction in kinematics.  (Open Website)

Students can have fun exploring projectile motion as they interactively fire objects of varying mass from a cannon.  Users may set initial velocity, angle, and air resistance.  This resource would be teamed well with the Physics Classroom student tutorial on projectile motion (below).  (Open Website)

This simulation would be a good follow-up to the PhET projectile motion applet (above).  This item takes the learner to the next level by calculating maximum height, horizontal distance, magnitude of velocity, and total energy of a projected object.  Students will set initial height, speed, angle, and mass before firing their projectile.  (Open Website)

Kinematics is the science of describing the motion of objects using words, diagrams, numbers, graphs, and equations. The goal of any study of kinematics is to develop sophisticated mental models which serve to describe (and ultimately, explain) the motion of real-world objects.  (Open Website)

This seven-part resource is an excellent introduction to the characteristics of projectile motion.  Through in-depth explanations and animations, it explores vertical acceleration and explains why there are no horizontal forces acting upon projectiles, a common student misconception.  The last two sections are devoted to problem solving.  Try teaming it with the PhET Projectile Motion activity above.  (Open Website)

A unique and highly-engaging tutorial developed by the authors of Australia's PhysClips.  Short film clips, photos, and diagrams are integrated with simple text to spark interest.  The first two videos feature the classic "Hammer and Feather Drop", both on the moon and on Earth.....a great springboard to discuss air resistance.  (Open Website)

This applet illustrates both conservation of energy and circular motion. A roller coaster travels over a large and small hill, then goes through a loop. Students can have fun controlling speed, height of the hills, and size of the loop, then viewing the effect on the moving car.  It is an engaging way to explore the physics governing roller coaster construction.  (Open Website)

For the teacher planning a unit on amusement park physics, this tutorial can double as a student classroom activity.  It offers an excellent overview of the forces acting upon a roller coaster as it travels on a straight, curved, or looped track.  It includes a self-test at the end to gauge student comprehension.  Free body diagrams and animations depicting kinetic/potential energy also enhance student understanding of a complex set of interactions.  (Open Website)

One of the most deeply entrenched misconceptions among beginning physics students is that centrifugal motion (away from the center) is a "force" in itself.   In this resource, part of Physics Classroom, the author explains why the direction of force is viewed from an inertial frame of reference in a classical mechanics course and thus why centrifugal motion is not a force in a Newtonian framework.  (Open Website)

This resource guides the beginning student through characteristics of circular motion.  It is broken into five sections addressing:  the mechanics of circular motion, centripetal force,  algebraic and trigonometric problems and solutions, and a full chapter that debunks the centrifugal "force" misconception.  Interactive problems feature liberal use of diagrams and force vectors to enhance understanding.  (Open Website)

This student tutorial illustrates how circular motion principles can be combined with Newton's Second Law to analyze physical situations.   Two algebraic problems and detailed solutions are provided, plus a five-step model for solving circular motion problems.  (Open Website)

HyperPhysics is an exploration environment for concepts in physics which employs concept maps and other linking strategies to facilitate smooth navigation. In exploring any aspect of physics, basic concept understanding is a must. Connections between concepts a plus.  (Open Website)

This page contains procedures for setting up 20 demonstrations relating to motion.   All demos have been fully tested in the classroom and were selected for inclusion because they are engaging, require minimal set-up, and are highly illustrative of key concepts taught in introductory classical mechanics.  Historical anecdotes and commentary add to the depth of this unique resource.  (Open Website)

This is an interactive website designed and maintained by a high school physics teacher.  It offers tutorials, simulations, and problems relating to kinematics, waves, trigonometry, algebra, and geometry.  The entertaining format is designed for students and also contains an EZ Graph calculator to help them easily see the graphic effect of changing coefficients.  (Open Website)

This resource is the Motion section of the Science Literacy Benchmarks published by the AAAS.  It is a statement of desired learning outcomes on the topic of motion and kinematics for grades 2, 5, 8, and 12.  It was developed to provide a research-based sequence of specific learning goals that educators can use in curriculum building.  (Open Website)

This simulation is an interactive means to understand how friction can play a role in the analysis of motion.  (Open Website)