As the Library Media Specialist at East Lyme High School, I am a constant witness to teachers and students participating in a wide array of amazing activities.  Activities that promote student inquiry and engagement and strive to develop skills and character that relate to our school’s mission, which is to educate students to be responsible, independent and productive lifelong learners.   There are so many things going on behind closed doors that should be shared with administrators, educators, parents and the community as a whole.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight these activities and share with the world the good things going on behind the scenes at East Lyme High School.   My goal is to publish a monthly post for this purpose.  Feel free to comment and share if you know of other activities that are related.

Kathleen

Senior Physics – Analysis of Motion vs. Time
Brad Normand

What’s the Big Idea?  - Understanding the Concepts of Kinematics

Using a Vernier Motion Detector, laptops, Logger Pro, and a Vernier computer interface, Mr. Normand’s Physics class plotted real time graphs of their motion as they moved across the room.  The motion detector measures the time it takes for a high-frequency sound to travel from the detector to the person and then return.  Using the value of time (how long it took to travel to the detector and back) and the speed of sound, the Vernier computer interface can define the distance to the object and thus the position of the object.  Students were challenged to move back and forth in front of the motion detector so that the real-time graph of their motion matched a graph that was given to them. They had to predict how to move based on the graph and analyze the results of the real-time graph creator to make improvements.

 In addition to position-time graphs, students were asked to analyze and match velocity-time graphs.  By the end of the activity, students were able to interpret the graphs by determining the type of motion based on the slope of the lines in the graphs.  

The students are always fully engaged in this activity and particularly enjoy viewing the real-time graphing effect as they move across the room.