1. Motion, Vectors, and Gliders …or a quick four-day journey on plotting movement…

2. Class composition: • 26 students, all girls, 9th grade • 45 minute class periods • Last 4 days of class before review for semester exams, spring semester. • Totally new topic (we had had a semester of chemistry…)

3. Day 1: Post-it mania • In the hallway outside my room, each group was given the task to plot the motion of some object that moved in uniform, constant motion: a tricycle, bowling ball, supply cart, toy Tonka truck, and a dynamics cart were used. • Each group had a student as a: -- timer -- motion controller -- post-it marker -- observer

4. Tasks?? • Determine your origin (tile floor helped!) • Start motion • Timer called out 2-second intervals • Post-it markers noted on floor the location of the object at the intervals • Each group was given a white dry-erase board, and plotted distance vs. time • Repeat, if possible, at a faster or slower speed

5. Plotting motion on the white board

6. Day 2: Review & further learning • Review: with handout, students learned the definition of velocity: • Velocity = distance / time, and were told to calculate their velocities from day 1. • Slope: students learned how they could obtain the velocity from their white-board and paper plots using the slope, or rise (distance) over run (time).

7. Day 2: New concept!Two dimensional motion: • Classroom Intro: discussion about motion in two dimensions… How would they tell a friend how to get to Tropical Moose in Kirkwood from a game at Kirkwood H.S.? • ‘Displacement’: a motion from place-to-place, or start-to-finish, often involves motion on a horizontal plane, in more than one direction

8. Hallway task: • Set up a N-E coordinate system with tape on tiles • Plot motion of your object (timer, post-its, etc) • Transfer plot to graph on handout • Draw an arrow from start to finish • Introduce the ‘displacement vector’, (which essentially, is the arrow from start to finish)

9. Day 3: Outside!! • Introduce the concept of ‘blind’ gliders from Coleman-Lodes lesson plan • Show the students the ‘playing field’, in front of the school, containing N & E axes, and target about 200 feet northeast of origin • Break into groups, blindfold one in group, give them markers, start at slightly different locations (no interference or mid-course collisions!), and let ‘em go!

10. Simple rules • Blindfolded glider walks twenty paces, stops, is marked, and ‘peeks’ for a course correction. • ‘Aide’ does the marking, and keeps her from crashing into trees, other gliders, etc., if necessary. Does not assist in direction choice! • Travel until you reach the goal. • Plot path on handout.

11. The blindfolded glider day

12. Day 4: Summarize, review, and check out oceanic migration! • Finish plots, and answer questions about previous day. • Plot displacement vector of blindfolded glider motion (i.e., draw arrow). • Check out Rutgers gliders website, plot displacement vector of one of the glider paths on image on handout. • Check out the TOPPs website, choose a pelagic predator, plot its displacement vector on handout.

13. The Rutgers’ glider data: http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool/glider/webpage/glidersiteNJ_Endurance.htm http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool/glider/webpage/glidersiteNJ_Endurance.htm

14. Pacific Pelagic motion tracks: TOPPS –http://las.pfeg.noaa.gov/TOPP_recent/index.html